(+8 GMT) before the undead come to life

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

I vant to drink your blooood! muahahahaha

no...no...no...
too much protein...it's the meat I vant

Its that time again.....

Hello everyone, Gavin here with a another production blog for another play that'll have your parents running out of the thatre begging for air!! Just kidding, hopefully that won't happen but if it does.....well, I guess that would be kinda cool. This time, for your viewing pleasure, the boys and girls and myself are cooking up a little something called Frankenstein In Love written by horror genius Clive Barker, the man responsible for films such as Hellraiser, Candyman, Nightbreed and Lord Of Illusions to name a few.

Clive Barker has written plays you ask? Well, you certainly wouldn't be the first to ask that question and the answer is a gloriously gory 'YES'! Early in his career, Mr Barker did indeed write plays, three to be exact - Colussus, Frankenstein In Love and The History Of The Devil. All three are kick-ass plays but Frankenstein has always been my favourite and the one that I've been waiting to do for some time now. Inspired by Mary Shelley's classic horror story, Clive Barker has has taken the Shelley's tale and basically put his own spin on it. The result is a sort of 'what if' scenario. What if Dr Frankenstein had actually succeeded in creating a race of half dead-half alive creatures? And what if these creatures still had the ability to think and feel the way normal people do, but yet at the same time be very much aware of what they are and the fact that they have no real place in the world.....what would happen?

What happens is that it causes a huge uprising and there is a revolution. This serves as the backdrop for the play. The emotional core of the story is a tragic romantic triangle that develops between El Coco, the leader of the revoution (played by Rashid Salleh), Veronique, one of Frankenstein's creations (played by Melissa Maureen) and the good Doctor Frankenstein himself (played By Mano Maniam). Its a beautifully tragic relationship that doesn't just hint at the unimaginable but actually has the balls to go there, which is what I love so much about it. This is a play that truly grabs you by the short and curly's and dares you to try and run.

Aside from the three romantic interests, there is a host of colorful, equally fucked up characters that inhabit Barker's crazy world. There is Maria Reina Duran (played by Mary George), a dead fan-dancer who also serves as the play's narrator. Cockatoo (played by Michael Chen), a crazed revolutionary who loyally serves El Coco, all the while wearing a crazed broad grin on his face. Then there is Lazaro (played by Douglas Lim), a half-witted friend of Maria's. There are the two flesh-eating creatures Follezou and Mattos (played by Rauf Fadzilla and Bharani Rasaselvam) who assist Veronique in her quest for vengenance, first on the list is a faithless Cardinal (played by Reuben Arthur)! We have President Garcia Perez (played by Patrick teoh) the nation's current President that El Coco seeks to overthrow (amongst other things) and lastly the hilariously morally ambiguous duo of Camilo Bozuffi (played by Reza Zainal Abidin) and Dr Fook (played by U-En Ng), a tailor and pathologist who have a hideously amusing business relationship.

Indeed, this is a play that is designed to scare and disturb but trust me, it isn't without its share of good laughs. We had a our first reading of the play last night and there were points where we had to stop cos we couldn't stop laughing. We'll be reading through the play all this week (without Douglas, who's finishing off Broken Bridges and Reza, who's doing Second Link) before we start blocking Monday next week. As rehearsals progress, you can expect the usual input from the cast and crew. Only this time, we've got a lot more goodies coming your way as you'll be treating to previews not only of the set design but also the costumes and make-up, which I promise you, is going to be off the fucking chain.

Watch this space and look forward to Halloween! More to come soon.

Peace.