iTunes Exclusive Episode Frankenstein

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Welcome.
This is Rob, I am the executive producer of the Clubhouse Podcast and you could feed
my Frankenstein.
That'd be fine.
I'm hungry a lot.
I'm not alone for this particular episode, back in the co-host chair as he should be.
Is my co-host and a man who does not want you to go away because he does not want you
to think he's repulsive.
He is Chad.
Welcome, sir.
Thank you for not finding me repulsive.
There's nine people and that joke was for you that are laughing right now.
The official fact checker of the show is here and a man who actually knew the Edgar winner
group reference last night.
I was very impressed by that.
You may know him as fun, don't go, but as a mom I name him Don Ford, I'm going to call
him Don Ford.
Welcome, sir.
That's more in the sea, that's not even the same thing.
Everything was going well and then that happened two minutes and 22 minutes.
Hello, bitch.
Whatever we do one of these things, it is to review something and this is no exception.
We're going to talk stage production today as we had the opportunity the night before
recording this to go to the Calita Humphrey's theater to check out a production running through
March 4th of Frankenstein for starts this whole thing.
Yes, sir.
We got to thank Kaylee and everybody at the Dallas Theater Center for such a theater.
The AT&T Performing Arts Center, all those cats man, they give us the chance to check
stuff out so we can talk to the Empire about them.
Now this is a little different because this is not a nationally touring company.
What's not?
Okay.
The heat is tends to do more just local production.
Ah, that's cool.
And actually, it's kind of talking about the Calita Humphrey's theater is how I started
my written review of this currently located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.
That's our website.
And I think it's important before we get into this production to kind of set the stage
for people that have not been there.
The Calita Humphries, we'll call it the Humphries, if you will.
It is one of those theaters.
It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the early fifties.
If you didn't know it was there, you drive right by it.
You know how I know that?
Because I did it for about three years.
We did it last night.
I'm like, oh, no, we didn't.
Oh, you might have.
No, Finney and I had no idea.
Our normal entrance was closed off.
So we had to find it was very strange how we got them out of time.
Yeah, that didn't help.
Right.
But it's a beautiful theater.
It only seats about 500 people.
So I want you to consider that for those of you listening to this particular, this
particular episode, that this is a very small venue with a very large stage.
Now Don and I actually saw another production there last year.
So we knew the Christians.
So we kind of knew, but the way they used that space is amazing.
Because for the Christians, the set was just a big, like a big sanctuary where you really
get to see the depth of the stage in this.
And no, not much prop movement or anything like that.
It was just right.
It was pretty stacked.
It was just a chair.
It was a worship hall.
Yeah.
Here you got to see the real depth of the stage.
It almost looks like a silo with the way it set up.
Yeah.
Yeah, it did.
And yes, it is the story of Frankenstein.
But it's, to even say it's more based on Mary Shelley's novel than the story you may
know if you've seen the old classic films, even that's not completely accurate.
Right.
Because this is only kind of part of that story because of how the story is told.
Right.
Because, you know, there's, if you don't know the story, first of all, welcome back from
the cave.
But all of the, the work of Dr. Frankenstein, as he is doing his experiments leading up
to the creation of what they're referring to in this version as the creature, none of
that's here.
We start with him throwing the switch, the lightning bolt hitting the deal.
We start with seeing the creature come to life.
We don't even see the doctor right away.
And that's how this thing starts.
I will tell you going into it and seeing it in an atmosphere like that, I think was
kind of neat too because I think this kind of a production, I'm not even going to bury
the lead here.
It's made for a smaller venue.
It really is.
We had seen this at the Winspir Opera Center or even at the Wiley.
I don't know that it would have had the same impact that it does in a smaller actually
made to because this is a static theater with, you know, with the Wiley, you can reconfigure
it.
We've seen it many different ways that we've seen productions there.
This intimate setting for this kind of a story, being in a 500 C theater, I think made
it better.
I do too.
It's a claustrophobic feeling that you're getting, it feels like you're in a lab.
Exactly.
And it's very immersive.
It isn't an immersive experience.
I mean, there's, I think the wires are still coming down from, from the Isles much like
at the Wiley.
Yeah, I think the Wiley is still going to do.
No, that's fair.
But not like, like, like, musical, fair, part of the Winspir.
Right.
Way too big.
And so we start with the creation of the creature and carries it through the Mary Shelley
version, which is there's definitely liberties taken with the classic universal tale.
Well, I don't know if I really could, I went up on Wikipedia and there's a, I think
this follows the Shelley novel.
It really does.
That's what I'm saying.
That's what I'm saying.
No, that's exactly what I'm saying.
This more follows the Shelley novel than what you would remember if you saw the classic,
that's what I'm saying, the classic monster version.
That's what I took.
That took a lot of liberties.
Yeah, yeah.
This one takes liberties on a certain level, it leaves certain characters out, it leaves
certain plot lines.
They combine certain things together.
Just streamline it for time.
I get that.
Yeah.
I'm totally okay with that.
Yeah.
And when I say this is immersive, this is immersive.
Like I want to walk people through this because show, half an hour before the show starts
is when they open the doors.
You go and you get sat down and there's already stuff going on.
As Don was talking about the two big set pieces that move around because the stage is on
a turntable, which is you did not know, which is kind of cool.
Yeah.
It's incredibly effective.
It's really smooth as glass, the transitions, it really worked well for the, because we've
seen productions where they've got the same turntable, but it's a little lumpy, smooth
as glassy.
Yeah.
Just like seeing transitions of them walking and I'm like, that's really brilliant.
Yeah, that was kind of neat.
And sometimes searching was kind of cool too in particular.
Right.
Oh, absolutely.
And even in some cases where people were appearing that you didn't even see get to
where they were, but when you get there and you walk in, you, as the production starts,
you can tell how long people have been in the theater because it starts right away.
But for that half an hour before, you're getting very ambient noise, a lot of subwoofer
going on here.
And you and I were talking about in the pre-show, Don, and I'm going to ask you this question
as well, because Chad and I talked about this last night.
Did it seem like the closer we got to show time, the louder it got?
Yes.
Okay.
So it wasn't just that he was just starting off with that little fuzz and hiss and then
the bass kept on hitting in and stuff like that.
The bass is a fish.
Okay.
The hitches with fish.
You know, you know what I would like in that too?
I will challenge you to it, dude.
You know what I would like in that too?
That's it.
When we saw Bull.
Yeah.
But not nearly to that.
Not nearly it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, this really started because building up and building up because I thought that
they'd have the thing on.
Is it like my comeback?
Don't think about it.
Hello.
Is this on?
Hello.
Yeah.
Exactly.
To the point where now it's starting to get in the background noise, we're starting to
build, which I really, really enjoyed.
And there's little flashes going on with the projection onto the stage that you notice every
once and again.
Yeah.
They didn't want you to get comfortable, which is a good thing because when this thing starts,
it's, here we go.
Yeah.
It starts.
I mean, it jolted several people around.
There were a few times where people were like jumping.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
And a full multimedia experience.
I love the backdrop.
Projected backdrops.
Projected foreground images.
The image of the creature coming to life, the very first thing you see, I thought was phenomenally
done.
That they basically, he basically superimposes himself.
Yeah.
It's really on the wall that he's strapped to, but on the wall on the backside of the stage
too.
There's so much going on and you're trying to take it all in.
I mean, it's not like it's overwhelming, but there's a lot going on.
Yeah.
It's eerily reminiscent of like the opening credits of seven.
Yes.
You mentioned that last night as we were sitting on the pre-show.
Be aware, though.
And this is something that I thought was an amazingly bold choice.
And let me preface this done by saying we can't use the watch gauge here.
Okay.
And I'll tell you why.
I was clocking in this.
How long it was going to take for the first real set of dialogue to happen.
Because I realized a few minutes in, because as the creature is created and comes to life,
he doesn't have motor skills.
He doesn't have communication skills.
He's trying to figure out who and what he is.
Yeah.
So there's no real serious dialogue into this until the 25 minute mark.
Yeah.
I'd say about, uh, if you go to my interview at www dot the Colossal podcast dot com.
That's our website.
I played it.
It's about the first third of the player.
Yeah.
The first third of the first.
He doesn't say it works.
Yeah.
His acting is his talking through this thing.
So there is again, so be prepared for that.
But the thing about it is this performance by Kim Fisher.
Did I read that correctly?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That plays the creature.
It was a little too far away from me.
You want to talk about something that has to carry something.
Kim Fisher has to carry this entire production.
And he does it.
Real beautifully.
Yeah.
I mean, he buries himself in this role.
He really does.
And you, you actually as an audience member,
and I don't want to speak for you, the royal.
You, I'm going to speak for me right now.
I literally felt like I was watching him evolve.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
From creation to learning to read and write and speak as he runs into it,
an old blind man at a cabin in the room out in the middle of nowhere.
Played brilliantly about Blake Hack.
Oh, that was him.
He got my shout out.
He did indeed.
He was very, very good.
Their interaction, I thought, was very strong.
And then through a series of events,
the creature goes back to where he was created to find his creator to get questions answered.
And to look at my mouth, the camera feels.
Not only is their chemistry really strong, his chemistry with Alex Oregon,
who plays Victor Frankenstein, is also very strong.
We've seen in several local productions.
And this guy, Alex Oregon brings it every single time.
Absolutely.
This thing works on every level, but I want people to understand that going into this,
this is not, you know, this is not, is it Boris Karloff originally?
Right.
This is not the Boris Karloff.
You're going to hear Furt Elise about 150 times.
And there's the thing with the little girl in the flower.
And it's not this story.
Right.
If you're familiar with the way the creature's portrayal was done in like things,
more, more current things like Penny Dreadful, or even Bronox version,
where Danero played the creature, it's closer to that.
Right.
It's a little bit closer to that.
The most important thing, I think, to walk away from this thing though,
is that it's told not so much from the doctor's perspective as it usually is.
Yeah.
The journey is the creature's journey versus the doctor's.
Which is why it starts with his creation.
It's all about him.
We've now seen versions of this told from three different points of view,
because if you remember a couple of years ago, you had, was it Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy
that did Victor Frankenstein, which was more told from Igor's perspective.
Yeah.
I really thought this was done incredibly well.
If I have any criticism, there were some weird choices made for me,
because this is supposed to be early 19th century Europe.
And some people worked the accents, and some people didn't work the accents,
and some people kind of sort of had the accents.
I needed commitment either way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Consistency with dialect.
Because I didn't read the program, so I wasn't sure where we were until they were talking about,
oh no, you've got to go back to here, and then we're going to go to London.
I was like, oh, okay.
So we were in Europe.
Right.
Fair enough.
I mean, I can understand that if you commit to not doing the accents,
but you didn't have that across the board.
Right.
It was a little weird for me.
Not enough to take me out of this, because I still really, really, really enjoyed this production.
But that was a little weird for me.
Maybe some people are immigrants from America.
You know what?
Ladies and gentlemen, the wouldn't wisdom of Don Ford.
Don Ford voice of reason.
Because you know, I just wouldn't have been the same with that,
without you and C chanties as he's harvesting corpses.
I enjoyed that.
I enjoyed that very much.
That would have, we would have been denied something great to be hadn't done that that way.
There's a lot of accelerated time jumping that you have to identify with as well.
If I had one gripe, I mean, the acting was incredible.
I'm not really a gripe.
It's more of a criticism.
But I mean, so the acting wasn't credible.
But my little thing was, I thought not really knowing the story too much,
like Chad, who's our universe monster universe, like a psychopedia guy.
It would be the universal monster nicely done.
Yeah, thank you.
I'll take that.
The universe monster of universes.
Okay, fair enough Don.
Here's our go-to guy.
But he's a words man.
Yeah, I didn't really know the original Richellie thing till I kind of read up on it.
But I think there were some parts not really knowing the story.
That it seemed a little rushed and rushed on some things and some things got cut out.
Then when I read the story today, under the, under the wikipedia, it was kind of...
The wikipedia.
Wikipedia.
The witchcraft.
Yeah, apparently that teaches you how to be a witch.
But it was kind of like this guy.
He tries so hard.
He is, but he's our every man.
That's why we love him.
But that's why it was, it's something seemed a little jumpy, especially the ant.
I mean, the last scene everybody knows about it.
Yeah, and that's one of the things that we were talking about.
Well, if you haven't seen the Mary Shelley version, you wouldn't know the ending scene,
because that's not in the original Boris Carla version.
But I even had to say to Chad afterwards, you're absolutely right.
I was like, did the ending seem weird or rushed?
And I don't really want to talk about it, because I don't want to give anything away.
The end of it seemed just a little long at the end.
Yeah.
But still, the pacing was going to roll out.
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, really, really enjoyed it.
It is about two hours and 15 minutes plus a 15 minute mission thing.
Right.
But I thought it was very well paced.
You knew.
And maybe it's because we've been doing this for so long now.
But I'm kind of watching to see, okay, I think this is where act one's going to end.
And it ends right where it's supposed to.
Yeah.
And so act two picks up right where it's supposed to.
And in front of the show Raymond Garcia actually got to see this the night before we did.
And he's his comments where he really loved it, but it's not the story.
If you don't, if you're a mainstream monster movie person, you might get a little lost in it,
because it's not the same story.
But if you've seen Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or read the book,
you're at least rudimentary where you need to.
Okay.
So on the Mary Shelley,
Shelley,
the story or the movie,
is that they spend a lot of time with him with the blind man in the woods.
It was there's that much time in the movie in the book.
I've never seen that.
I've never seen the drama film.
I can't comment on that.
I saw it once.
And it's been years since I read the book.
And it was and I was a kid.
And I read it.
If it's through the story through the eyes of the doctor and not the monster,
how much time in the book or in the movie is spent with the blind man?
That's an excellent question.
I can't answer that.
If I remember correctly,
the time with the blind man was kind of reflected on in flashback in the novel.
Okay.
Because because the perspective...
Well, most of the film is told in flashback.
Well, yeah, the film is told in flashback.
I know that because I read the Wikipedia.
Because it's told from Victor's perspective.
Right.
When you're looking at it through different eyes,
I guess they kind of...
Because Victor Frankenstein,
which is the,
which is where they would call it that since it's more eager story,
they don't mention that at all because Igor wouldn't have known that.
Yeah.
Yeah, he never witnessed it.
There's only one concern I had about the suspension of disbelief.
Okay.
He spent a lot of time,
I mean, seasons with that blind man,
if not years, right?
To me, it looked like more about a year.
Okay.
Given some of the concepts that we can talk about.
How come he didn't take a bath once?
Because he's the creature, dude.
I know what he is.
He doesn't sweat.
I mean, sweat.
You know, especially if he's getting, you know, humanized,
you figure he'd at least go out once and maybe wash off
and get the dirt off.
Well, maybe he did.
He just, because he was living in a barn.
Maybe he just got dirty again.
I know.
Okay.
Anything else we want to talk about before we do the final analysis here?
No.
All right, then let's get to it.
The way we do the final analysis on this show,
we're not going to give you thumbs-up, thumbs-down.
We're not going to give you a letter, grades, numbers.
We're not going to give you a number of...
Ugh!
Nothing like that.
Although I thought I was going to go do mad, Damon.
But we're going to ask up to two questions.
Question number one is, would we see this production again?
Because it's going to be planned for about another three weeks.
If the answers know them, we're done here.
But if the answer is yes, then the question becomes,
since this is a stage production,
where would you want to sit to see it again?
Now, it will dictate because prices change.
But with the hum freeze, there's not a lot of price differentiation.
Is that a word?
Just because this is such a small venue.
And chickens are very affordable for this.
I looked them up online.
Very, very affordable.
Don, we're going to start with you.
Would you see this again?
Yep.
All right, where are you going to sit?
I would say something in the mid price to full price level.
Okay.
They do have a little balcony, so you're still on the floor.
On the floor, back on the floor.
Okay.
Chad, have you seen this again?
Oh, God, yeah.
Where are you sitting?
Top dollar.
Because it's worth it.
Because this cast pours there everything into it.
The technical team, obviously, is at the top of their game.
Absolutely.
I commend everybody involved in this.
You deserve every dollar.
I would see this.
We were sitting audience left.
I would like to be more centered.
Because I think there were certain,
the way things were moving around,
it's certain points there.
I think there were things that we were missing.
I've struck it from our face.
Right.
So I would like to be more centered.
We were sitting about six rows back.
So I think that's about right.
Right in the middle, middle, middle, middle, middle,
in the sweet spot.
Yeah.
Because there's one point where the bedposts were blocking the view,
and I can see through the bedpost, you know.
So, yeah.
I mean, there's even a balcony seat,
so we can get the entire view of, you know,
the entire perspective.
If they have anything in the center.
But I liked as close as we were sitting,
because you could see up into the stage,
and it really looked had that,
I mean, that creepy look went all the way up to the ceiling.
I would love to see them do this around Halloween.
It is that the co-lead-on choice for family work,
or whatever work.
Maybe this one's sticking their toe in the water.
You don't know.
Well, it is.
Do it again.
I'm a certain point of view.
I'm a certain point of view.
At the co-lead-on Humphrey's Theatre through March the 4th,
it is Frankenstein.
Bro, there's whole thing.
Yes, sir.
We got thank-Kaley, everybody at the Dalsett Center.
There's so much for everything you do for us.
Thank you guys so much for everything you do for us.
We are forever thankful for ever in your debt.
And we will, you keep inviting us.
We'll keep showing up.
Amen.
That being said, let's do the plugs.
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She's phased Ford fixing dinner for her husband.
Hopefully.
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