Set against the backdrop of '80s club culture and hooliganism, Kristen offers a gritty, powerful, and revolutionary retelling of 'Frankenstein', which questions who we call monsters and who we don't.
Director Cohan leads a team of majority transgender and non-binary creatives to bring Kristen's hauntingly poetic text to life as family secrets unravel in the lives of narrator Ruby, a trans club kid, Frank, leader of West Ham’s Inter City Firm and Harry, his lethal henchman.
Here, Kristen Smyth pens an open letter ahead of 'Cruel Britannia: After Frankenstein' opening at Arts Centre Melbourne.
“When I think about Ruby’s experience as a trans kid in '80s London clubland, I’m filled with immense grief of the life she could have been living. Boy George, Leigh Bowery’s Taboo, Derek Jarman, Soho, the King’s Road, clubs like Heaven and RAW and Kensington Market on the weekend. I did all of these things and yet I didn’t know then what instinctual yearning I was tapping into. I didn’t know I was trans but I knew I needed these experiences to breathe. Without this I was nothing.
Perhaps this is why I sought obliteration in drink and drugs aged just 13. I had no knowledge of dysphoria. Of being trans. And perhaps that’s where the characters of 'Frankenstein' began to resonate with my own story. Perhaps this could be a way to make sense of trauma. I think that was Shelley’s intention.
'We get to see life in all its colours, and at least here they don’t look at me funny.' – Ruby
'Cruel Britannia' starts in an operating theatre. Is this a resuscitation? Are we seeing the transformation of an ailing carcass? Or maybe this is just a run-of-the-mill medical procedure under general anaesthetic? Ruby introduces us to characters from her perspective on the operating table. It’s gothic horror! But it’s also whip-smart funny, in a dark, f...-me-that-was-close kinda way.
Remember, Shelley was 19 when she published 'Frankenstein'. I was getting kicked out of Subterania and the Cafe de Paris.
'This is what you’re told to feel when you’re smashing the sh.t out of someone at the train station.' – Frank
Frank is our protagonist and much like Viktor, he’s wrestling with suppressed rage and a desire to show the world he’s a genius. When he’s not fighting with Leicester and Chelsea, he’s committing hate crimes. And so, in a different sense is his best mate Harry.
'Cruel Britannia' operates among the shadows.
On stage each night in Edinburgh and soon I’m sure in Melbourne, I look out from this world and a part of me breaks. Why is there so much fear and hatred towards us? Why so much hostility when there is so much to celebrate in our joy, revelation and courage?
Shelley’s Creature polarises audiences – is it a monstrous abomination of man’s creation or a child abandoned by its creator? This play has the yearning of a love letter and the pain of a suicide note. But above all I hope it provides some healing. It’s done that for me.
I love you, Ruby.”
Perhaps this is why I sought obliteration in drink and drugs aged just 13. I had no knowledge of dysphoria. Of being trans. And perhaps that’s where the characters of 'Frankenstein' began to resonate with my own story. Perhaps this could be a way to make sense of trauma. I think that was Shelley’s intention.
'We get to see life in all its colours, and at least here they don’t look at me funny.' – Ruby
'Cruel Britannia' starts in an operating theatre. Is this a resuscitation? Are we seeing the transformation of an ailing carcass? Or maybe this is just a run-of-the-mill medical procedure under general anaesthetic? Ruby introduces us to characters from her perspective on the operating table. It’s gothic horror! But it’s also whip-smart funny, in a dark, f...-me-that-was-close kinda way.
Remember, Shelley was 19 when she published 'Frankenstein'. I was getting kicked out of Subterania and the Cafe de Paris.
'This is what you’re told to feel when you’re smashing the sh.t out of someone at the train station.' – Frank
Frank is our protagonist and much like Viktor, he’s wrestling with suppressed rage and a desire to show the world he’s a genius. When he’s not fighting with Leicester and Chelsea, he’s committing hate crimes. And so, in a different sense is his best mate Harry.
'Cruel Britannia' operates among the shadows.
On stage each night in Edinburgh and soon I’m sure in Melbourne, I look out from this world and a part of me breaks. Why is there so much fear and hatred towards us? Why so much hostility when there is so much to celebrate in our joy, revelation and courage?
Shelley’s Creature polarises audiences – is it a monstrous abomination of man’s creation or a child abandoned by its creator? This play has the yearning of a love letter and the pain of a suicide note. But above all I hope it provides some healing. It’s done that for me.
I love you, Ruby.”
'Cruel Britannia: After Frankenstein' plays Arts Centre Melbourne 20-30 November.
