Stephanie Berry is Frankenstein at Classic Stage Company

Because of the configuration of the theater at Classic Stage Company, the audience can see each other all around them (for the most part), except for the side I was sitting on. The house lights are on at the outset and slowly dim as a single person plays foreboding music for a moment. Frankenstein, the bizarre and earnestly imaginative tale written in 1818 by Mary Shelly which is reimagined by Tristan Bernay who wrote and directed the play is not a replica but a sifting of the ostensible “monster” from the novel's pages laced with appearances of peripheral characters throughout this 80-minute rendition.

This piece of repertory has an experimental feel that reminded me of the Nuyorican Poets café and Story Theater. A gothic rendering of a ghastly legendary fairytale about a man born in a laboratory and created by Dr. Victor Frankenstein who comes to life. A metaphor of humankind from the inside out, Frankenstein symbolizes beauty from within and dissimilarity in appearance we fail to understand. But in this retelling, interestingly the character played poignantly by Stephanie Berry is a black person shrewdly portrayed as “the creature,” objectified and ostracized into a netherworld world of pain because they are not recognizable to others.

While the actor spoke eloquently about her dilemma on stage, from behind me I heard…