Author: Kim Newman
Date of First Publication: 2017
Place of Publication: Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories (Titan Books); First Performed as a vignette inside the play The Ghost Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore (Tristan Bates Theater, London, 7-19 March 2016)
Bibliographic Reference: isfdb
Type: Play
Characters: The Creature
Themes: ANDROID; RETRO SF; RACE and POLITICS; FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER; POSTHUMAN
Critical Summary: The scientists working in the Unwin Pharma Group research station above the Arctic Circle encounter a strange specimen frozen in the permafrost. The creature they find resembles a human, and it resembles a monster. Scientists Rory Viner and Alison Craig, along with the supervision of Unwin’s Myra Lark, begin to entertain the idea that the impossible has occurred: their find is the Frankenstein Monster. The scientists begin to recall the events of Mary Shelley’s original story to understand the creature thawing before them. The Monster awakens and grunts in short, simple sentences, a far cry from the eloquent, romantic outcast found in Shelley’s pages. Because of the nature of their discovery, Unwin sends more personnel to assess the Monster. Carl Cleaver and Valerie Court join the scientists along with Gala. Gala, short for Galatea, is Unwin’s Product Twelve. It is a servitor organism that is “clone grown, gene-spliced, tweaked in the bottle, augmented with biotech” or as Rory calls it, an updated version of Victor’s Creature. As the scientists grapple with the discovery that Shelley’s story was based on true events, they wonder about how Victor could re-animate and create life in his original process. The only clue they find in examining the Monster is a sticky red goo that surrounded the Monster’s body when he was found. Dr. Viner presents his theory that the red goo is an ‘elixir vitae’ that Victor perfected in order to reanimate The Creature. He suggests testing its power on animals, but he unintentionally becomes the subject of his own experiment when he ingests the goo. One by one the scientists are mysteriously killed to then be resurrected with the red goo. The goo invigorates the senses, creates resiliency, but is too powerful when used on humans. Ultimately, it is revealed that the Monster’s grunts are a ruse to trick the scientists into believing he was incapable of speech and complex thoughts. On the contrary, Myra and the Monster have conspired against the scientists to test the powers of Victor’s elixir on them and harness its powers as a tonic for Gala and other engineered Products.
Newman’s play imagines a world where Frankenstein is fact, and Victor’s desire to improve upon humanity is passed on to his creation. Newman’s Creature is deceitful and vengeful and has calculated plans for creating a master-race of ‘strong sons and daughters’ to take over the world. Newman’s monster echoes posthuman fears introduced in Shelley’s Frankenstein. The scientists in “Frankenstein on Ice” foolishly believe they are stronger and more intelligent than the monsters they have created, and yet they are easily deceived and killed off by them. The play channels a very common theme of Shelley’s original work by commenting on the limitations of humans, or as Newman writes, “even the living can have too much life.”
Administrative Notes: Sophia Sotelo, CSUF; Edited by Gareth O’Neal CSUF and Melanie Yogurtian, CSUF