Dead Weight Olney Theatreís Sluggish ëMonsterí Not Haunting Enough by Lisa Troshinsky Neal Bellís ìMonster,î an adaptation of Mary Shelleyís haunting ìFrankensteinî and part of the Olney Theatre Centerís Potomac Theatre Festival, is meant to be a compelling psychological and moral exploration of what happens when man plays God by creating life through science, not procreation. Although this concept was gripping enough in ìFrankensteinî to turn Shelley into a female literature icon before her timeóand to have inspired numerous movie sequelsóits treatment in ìMonsterî and on stage at the Olney Theatre, under Jim Petosaís direction, is less than rousing. Like Shelleyís novel, ìMonsterî begins and ends in the Arctic Ocean and is told mostly through flashbacks, but the script, which recounts how Victor Frankenstein created a monster by weaving together pieces of corpses as part of a science experiment to defeat death, is an uneven combination of serious drama and campy farce that doesnít mesh. The productionís comic timing is off, transitions are choppy, and there is far too much dead time on stage (no pun intended), which forces the audience out of its suspension of disbelief. Altho ugh I should have been perched on the edge of my seat with dreaded anticipation, during these sluggish sections I had to struggle not to daydream. In fact, the glib humor sprinkled throughout the script serves to undermine the playís serious themes, which are revealed when the monster, unhappy with being ìborn againî and abandoned by Victor, takes revenge on his creator. Fortunately, the compelling acting and powerful presence of Christopher Lane, who plays the Creature, salvage some of Shelleyís intended weightiness. His makeup and costuming, done by Pei Lee, are eerie and convincingly otherworldly, as are his grunts, body movements and relationship to his environment and others. From the start, the monster has human emotions and yearns to ìgo homeî (meaning return to the dead), which helps the audience feel his pain. But is the monster the only character we should relate to? It might be Shelley and Bellís ironic intentions that the monster is more ìhumanî than are the people in the story. However, for me, the play would have a deeper significance if we could also empathize with Frankenstein, who suffers in an alienated world, a product of his dysfunctional childhood. But this was virtually impossible. Victor Frankenstein, played by Jeffries Thaiss, comes off as childish and annoying. Thaiss plays only one dimension of his characteróthe devious, selfish brat. His character doesnít grow or change throughout the play until the very end, and his quick transformation is depicted more in action than in acting. Although Frankenstein tells the monster, ìI hoped for something better than lifeî when he created the creature, we donít feel this sentiment and dismiss Victorís intentions as foolish and inconsequential. The same can be said for Victorís family members, who donít show emotional depth when fighting with Victor or even when being attacked by the monster. The result is a sense of emptiness that separates the audience from the experience of the play. That said, the original music and sound design by Tony Angelini are hauntingly effectiveóa lone bass drum makes its presence as a heartbeat, and instruments realistically imitate ice slabs shifting and separating. James Kronzerís set is more functional than anything else: a series of huge slabs that could be walls of ice, the walls of Victorís basement, or the sides of mountains or buildings, depending on the scene. This concept is a good one, but the transitions of the slabs from one place on stage to the other could have been smootheróa criticism that can be applied to the entire production. ìMonsterî runs through Aug. 10 at the Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, Md. For more information, please call (301) 924-3400 or visit www.olneytheatre.org. Lisa Troshinsky is a theater reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.