Email
Print
del.icio.us
digg
Comments
FeedTheater Review: Plan B's Radio Hour - Frankenstein
Salt Lake City's Plan-B Theatre has done radio plays before, but never have the voice actors had a live studio audience to play to. Judging by the wonderfully animated preview I saw Thursday at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, the audience might be here to stay.
Radio Hour: Frankenstein is the season-opener for Plan-B, and the first in a season-long partnership with playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett. Based on this show, the partnership seems like it will be a fruitful one. Bennett's take on the familiar tale of Frankenstein is a winning one, full of drama, and the hour-long production was surprisingly mesmerizing, considering the audience was basically watching four voice actors reading their lines, backed by a couple folks creating sound effects with a series of household objects.
In fact, I repeatedly found myself entranced with the sound-effects crew; I would miss some of the play's lines while I watched the duo at the back of the stage bang on sheet metal to create thunder sounds, or pour rice down a piece of wood to replicate the sound of rain on a window pane. All I had to do, though, to snap back into the play's plot was close my eyes and allow the roundly excellent performances of the actors to join with the effects in creating vivid imagery in my mind of Frankenstein, his monster and the world they live in.
Each of the actors voiced multiple roles, and Tobin Atkinson was particularly strong evoking the monster created by Doug Fabrizio's Victor Frankenstein. With mournful moans and a wickedly deep growl, Atkinson's monster elicited everything from sympathy to fear, and it was a blast to watch him contort his body and face for the sake of reaching those emotional notes. Fabrizio was strong as the breathless doctor, and Teresa Sanderson and Jay Perry shined in multiple roles.
It's too late to get tickets to see Radio Hour: Frankenstein in person; the run has sold out. But you can hear it performed twice on Halloween, next Friday, at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. on KUER.
Do you like what you read? Subscribe to Salt Lake Magazine »
