First published in this standalone format back in July of 2021, ‘Frankenstein In Love’ formed the fifth of six books containing Barker’s playscripts that were published by Phil and Sarah Stokes through their project ‘The Clive Barker Archive’.
The playscript was first published in print within the Barker’s playscript collection ‘Incarnations’ (1995). The play also boasts the longer title ‘Frankenstein In Love, Or The Life Of Death’.
Alongside the playscripts, this standalone presentation of the book contains additional material, including Author’s Notes, Cast and Credits, and an Afterword.
In the vault beneath the palace of President Garcia Heliodoro Perez lies the operating room of Dr Joseph Frankenstein. Here, amongst the human grime of countless atrocities, each of which was performed in the name of science, the cruel dictator Perez seeks refuge. In the city above, carnage has erupted across the streets, as Cesar Guerrero’s ruthless revolutionaries overthrow the city.
With the city in disarray, it's not long before the President has company in his subterranean operating room. The rebel leader, El Coco, together with Juan Thomas Navarro (aka Cockatoo) of the People’s Revolutionary Militia, arrive to be faced with the full extent of the horror that was performed in that dank underground vault.
All eyes turn to Perez, who is duly accused of allowing a litany of sadistic crimes to take place in the vault. A prisoner named Veronique Flecker, who it emerges has been held in the vault for an entire year, where she was subjected to numerous experiments along with being raped, adds further fuel to the President’s guilt.
In the rebel leader’s eyes, there is only one course of action to take now. Flecker is handed a knife and given permission to wreak justice upon the president. Stabbing the President in a purposefully painfully slow manner.
With the President gone the city has a new successor. However, the inheritor of the city is not entirely human – more a stitching together of flesh and bone at the hands of Frankenstein. An atrocious creation, with cannibalistic tendencies and a remarkable affinity with fire. And whilst half the city lays dead, and the other half is in mourning, the city’s new successor, El Coco, begins to set down the manifesto of his new reign.
Although even within the dying embers of the world, there may just be time for a final love to awaken. Even the most despicable of creatures has a heart and a need. As does the creator of such nightmares. It’s a marriage made in the stink of hell…
Written in back 1981 whilst The Dog Company were performing their play ‘Paradise Street’, ‘Frankenstein In Love’ was the company’s first of Barker’s plays to not also be directed by him – instead it was directed by Malcolm Edwards.
The play itself is a dark story of horror and love with a deliberately comical undertone to its delivery. The audience (or reader in the case of the playscript) is purposefully meant to feel at odds with knowing whether to laugh or grimace at what is taking place. Indeed, the play is drenched from head to toe in a wealth of gore and grime, whilst striking at the nerves with plundering dark taboos which are slipped into the strange maelstrom of this perplexing love story.
The end result is an incredibly compelling narrative. We have a ripped-raw humanity that’s exposed to its bloodied bones set within the inevitable bleakness of an apocalyptic backdrop. All of this is of course encased within the loosely fitting patchwork-skin of Mary Shelly’s ‘Frankenstein’ (1818). The strangely horrific blossoming out from the still-pumping heart of the original story.
Okay, so again merely reading through the playscript doesn’t truly paint the active and energetic picture from what Barker originally envisaged. But it still tells one hell of a story, igniting the reader’s imagination with the horrific wonders of Barker’s nightmarish theatrical B-movie story. And within all of the chaos and madness, the reader is offered slithers of ideas which will later develop into aspects within ‘The Books Of Blood’ (1984-85) as well as ‘The Hellbound Heart’ (1986).
Also included are two-pages of Production Notes which briefly set the mood and prepares the reader for the visceral feast of the play. There’s also a further page listing the various cast members.
Additional Material:
Author’s Note – 2 Pages
Before the playscript commences, Barker provides a short opening note, explain how the playscript should be seen as a tool for creative inspiration, and not one to confine an ambitious collective who wish to put together a new presentation of the play. Barker’s note is incredibly open and humble, offering it out to the world for enjoyment and entertainment. This is Barker all over.
It should be noted that this is the same ‘Author’s Note’ as appears in the other Playscript books.
Original Production Cast & Credits – 2 Pages
Here we have a list of credit for those who worked on the original 1982 performance of the play – from the actors, to the stage manager and various technicians, to poster design.
The Creature: An Afterword – Phil & Sarah Stokes – 13 Pages
Clive Barker enthusiasts Phil & Sarah Stokes provide a wonderfully insightful afterword in which they detail how the play was written around the same time as ‘The Books Of Blood’ (1984 – 1985) was first being penned, and links with how Barker would become known as “the horror writer and enfant terrible”. Barker talks here of trying his hand at a piece of shock theatre evolving into a sort of sex comedy. We learn about Barker’s reimaging of the Frankenstein story, telling about a man who begins to divide himself in the same way as a country divides itself. Parallels are made to Barker’s play ‘Paradise Street’, as well as the stories ‘The Body Politic’, ‘In The Hills, The Cities’, and ‘The Hellbound Heart’.
The play is then examined in great detail by Barker along with others, before talking about director Malcolm Edwards’ positive effect on the end result and the play’s eventual reception. Details of its performance at a rock venue in Leiden, Holland add even more colour to the history of this magnificently horrific play. The afterword as a whole provides such a wonderful insight into the play’s history, along with its creation and motivating forces that its inclusion in the book enhances the whole piece that much more.
Photographs – 6 Pages
Next we have six-pages of black & white photographs from the plays, including photos of costume tests and props.
A History – 2 Pages
Ending the bonus material, we’re given a list of all Barker’s original plays, starting with ‘Voodoo’ in 1967 and ending with ‘Colossus’ in 1983.
The book runs for a total of 154 pages (of which the playscript runs for 128 pages).
© DLS Reviews
