Puppeteer Jon Ludwig brings Frankenstein back to life

For her 1818 novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley chose locations such as the Alpine climes and shadowy forests of Europe as well as the ice floes of the Arctic north. For his puppet-based adaptation of Frankenstein, Jon Ludwig ventures to the other side of the globe by evoking the feverish mysticism and music of the Caribbean.

The concept sounds crazy at first, and conjures a fleeting image of Frankenstein’s undead creation in a flowered shirt, sipping piña coladas. In fact, an ecstatic madness seizes Ludwig’s voodoo version of Frankenstein. The production possesses far more power than another literal take on Shelley’s oft-told gothic horror tale. Often the term avant-garde serves as a synonym for difficult or inaccessible theatrical concepts, but with Ludwig’s Frankenstein, avant-garde is astonishing.

The Center for Puppetry Arts first produced Frankenstein as one of the highlights of the 1996 Cultural Olympiad. Theater Emory reanimates the show, again under Ludwig’s direction, which retains its premise as a ritual induction into the Church of Frankenstein. The audience enters as the congregation, and ghostly, masked acolytes help us don white lab coats and scrub our hands like surgeons. Victor Frankenstein (Shawn Escarciga) has hardly any dialogue but serves as the subject of an initiation ceremony, officiated by Mambo Mary Shelley (Barbara Washington), who recites from an ancient tome with a lightning bolt on front.

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(Photo by David Zeiger)