Madison and the Monster
It’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Time for another fun Halloween episode with “Frankenstein!” I’d actually found the script for this on The Generic Radio Workshop‘s website. If you’re unfamiliar with them, they are a large resource for old time radio scripts. I’d used their website a lot in Year One, until I started transcribing my own episodes. But “Frankenstein” had caught my eye when we did “Dracula“. I’d intended on doing it for Year Two, but there were so many requests for “War of the Worlds” that I couldn’t resist tackling the Orson Welles’ classic telling. It’s always a challenge to see where Madison can fit into any given show. Does she substitute for an established character, or is she an extra character along for the adventure? In “Frankenstein,” she got to be both.
So this particular adaptation of “Frankenstein” was produced for the OTR show “My Favorite Story.” By framing the story with Victor telling his tale to his long-time friend, Clerval, the story jumps around from present day to flashbacks. First I gave Madison the role of Victor’s housekeeper/care taker. Not a character in the original script, but it fit in the time period and, since Madison is always doing odd jobs in OTR, worked for us, too. Then I took advantage of Victor having reached the brink of insanity in present day. So that as he tells the tale, it truly is a story told by a madman. That allowed Madison to appear in the flashbacks and to embody, in Victor’s memory, his love, Elizabeth. Jeremy, I think, did a great job going back and forth as the “crazed” Victor, and the young Victor who was unaware of the future he was creating. And, as always, Madison goes with the flow. Even trying to help Clerval navigate the strange world of time jumping.
Like all other shows of this era, there is still a disregard for women. The host’s lines are as originally written. The show really played up how amazing Percy Shelley was, characterizing Mary Shelley as an anomaly. A woman wrote “Frankenstein”? Clearly a fluke. Percy is the “celebrated poet.” I did end up doing research around the couple. And trust me, Percy doesn’t deserve all of the accolades he receives. He seduced Mary as a teenager, him in his 20s, while he was still married to someone else. Then cheated on Mary with her half-sister because he wanted to push what we would call today the “Bohemian” lifestyle in that, everyone should sleep around, married or not. She went with it, but she was still a teenager and admitted she did it reluctantly. Oh, and it should be noted, Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein” when she was 18. You rock, Mary. The other disregard for women in this version of the story is how the production company defined the character of Elizabeth. Simply as “a young woman in love.” Ick.
Overall, the episode was a lot of fun to write. That every character is self aware, while also being in the moment. But Victor is completely clueless. Which I think is a fun twist. The crazy guy is the only one not swept up in the crazy storytelling. Even the Monster has a better grasp of what is going on. And we gave him a “Happy Ending”
