CLONING MARY SHELLEY
REVIEWS
‘Campbell, like her subject, is a great creator . . . her set [is] an exploding wunderkabinet . . . a clever manifestation of a rich brain at work.’ Prague Fringe 2007
‘This is a work of great empathy and invention, a model for monologists.’ ***** Edmonton Journal, Canada
‘Intellectually rigorous, elegantly written and exquisitely performed.’ **** SEE Magazine, Edmonton Canada
‘Edie Campbell is a spellbinder.’ ***1/2 STARS Edmonton Sun, Canada
‘…experience the gently astringent wit and plangent poignancy of Edie Campbell’s Mary Shelley – Frankenstein‘s creator as never seen before.’ **** www.edfringe.com/reviews/
‘…an intricate and entirely coherent fugue of thought, image, and emotion on reproductive technology, the act of creation, and one’s ability to know who and what one is.’ www.pleasance.co.uk/edin/
‘…funny, thought-provoking and educational on both a scientific and literary level without being boring (quite a feat).’ **** www.edfringe.com/reviews/
‘Edie Campbell brings worlds within worlds within worlds alive.’
www.pleasance.co.uk/edin/
‘Campbell and Lynch give us a combination of biography, literature, science, religion, mythology, philosophy and psychology.’ British Theatre Guide
‘Campbell is a compelling actress . . . Her timing, pace and emotional honesty are beyond reproach. Cedar Rapids Gazette, USA
‘To say the least, actress Edie Campbell is gutsy.’ Iowa City Press Citizen, USA
‘I found Edie Campbell’s study of Mary Shelley at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature one of the most moving, polished and profound insights I have ever encountered.’ A-Level Teacher
FULL REVIEWS
‘Campbell, like her subject, is a great creator’ Divadlo Nablízko, Prague Fringe, June 2007
This lone-actor piece follows Tourist like a banquet after a bun. Writer and performer Edie Campbell’s meditation on the life and work of Mary Shelly becomes a marvelous intellectual exercise that gathers together genetics, history, myth and autobiography, then invites viewers to make unlimited associative leaps between the topics. Campbell is a mind as library. In fact, her set (looking like the aftermath of an exploding wunderkabinet of books, dolls, toys and origami) is like a clever physical manifestation of a rich brain at work among its scattered possessions. You almost wish you’d brought enough tablets of paper to take notes, as Campbell freely ranges from the writing of Frankenstein to the cloning of sheep. She references plenty of interesting books, though you begin to believe that Campbell’s own personal university thesis, which situated Frankenstein within the Luddite upheavals, might be the best to curl up with on a stormy night. Cloning Mary Shelly is primarily concerned with creation, and Campbell bravely brings in her own private struggles over choosing not to have children. Still, hers will be a lucid solitude. Not everything works in this excellent piece. A debate over genetic cloning is clumsily staged and seems inorganic, an accretion. Campbell’s voice, too, occasionally strikes one as a bit too lectern-bound. Nonetheless, the actress is such a generous spirit, granting others the sheer pleasure to wonder (and wander) along with her, that the piece’s deficiencies become immaterial. Campbell, like her subject, is a great creator.
‘A solid argument for seriousness at Fringe’ ***** Todd Babiak, Edmonton Journal, 19 August 2006
The Fringe, historically, is not the place to be serious. Time constraints, the rewards of comedy and the great risks of sentimentality, preachiness and melodrama typically steer performers away from concerns like, say, crib death and cloning.
Let us consider the merrily contemplative success that is Cloning Mary Shelley , an argument for seriousness at the Fringe.
Edie Campbell, who had a big hit here last year with Emily Dickinson & I , exudes eloquence and authority. In Cloning Mary Shelley , Campbell pulls from Mary Shelley’s life and work, the science and history of cloning, medical ethics, personal revelation and the big, big bag of theatre.
This is a physical performance, a reading, a question-and-answer session with the audience, a lecture, a confessional and a gripping story of loss. There may be a couple of heady moments, some rhetorical gristle to be sliced, but Campbell cleverly makes every aspect of this monologue dramatic.
Campbell manoeuvres the emotional and intellectual territory of Cloning Mary Shelley with great precision, moving from Mary’s tragedies to discussions of Dolly the sheep — in a professorial German accent, yes? — expertly.
Cloning Mary Shelley is filled with elegant surprises, from the spare set to Campbell’s concluding words. This is a work of great empathy and invention, a model for monologists.
**** Eva Marie Clark, SEE MAGAZINE
Intellectually rigorous, elegantly written and exquisitely performed by Edie Campbell, Cloning Mary Shelley fuses literature and science to create a chilling modern horror story. Like Victor Frankenstein, creators Jack Lynch and Edie Campbell strip the essentials from sources as disparate as Greek mythology, the writings of Mary Shelley, pop culture, genetic engineering and personal experience, assembling them into a creature unique to itself. The whole is galvanised by Campbell’s formidable stage presence and the staging is ravishing. As the elements collide, and the story grows, so too does a sick dread in the guts of the viewer. Science is now God, with dominion over the very creation of life. 190 years ago the mere notion drove Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. The irony is most strongly expressed when Campbell dons white coat, gloves, and German accent to demonstrate the possibilities of genetic tinkering with Mr. Potato Head and the history of cloning using children’s farm toys. The script also ponders childlessness. The concluding images of the piece are haunting, beautiful, but the underlying musings of this tour-de-force production will grip you even as you wend your way through the crowds to your next show.
‘Edie Campbell is a spellbinder’ *** 1/2-STARS Colin Maclean, Edmonton Sun, 25 August 2006
Her audiences are absolutely silent – hanging on her every phrase – lost in her whirling internal worlds of word, concept and thought. With the clear diction of a trained (English) actor and a remarkable ability to weave atmosphere, character and ideas into a scene, she sure knows how to hold us rapt.
There is a remarkable electricity generated between audience and performer.
Campbell is particularly adept at creating the “thrilling horror” of Shelley’s story.
*‘A show with Bite!’ *** Tim Dyke, 13 August 2003
Bored of stale agit-prop standup comics? Tired of the wave of expletives that seem an integral part of “cutting-edge” satire? Like to engage the old grey matter, learn something new and be genuinely moved? Then go to experience the gently astringent wit and plangent poignancy of Edie Campbell’s Mary Shelley – Frankenstein‘s creator as never seen before. I was intrigued by the slant on modern developments in cloning, appalled by what Mrs Shelley had to endure and unbearably moved by Edie’s exploration of the childless condition. Rather like an ice-cold sorbet after the feverish pizza of so many other shows. A must-see.
Scott DeShong, 12 August 2003
This one-woman performance is so rich I risk reducing it, yet here goes. Drawing on Shelley’s life and her “Frankenstein,” plus on science, mythology, and much more, the show develops an intricate and entirely coherent fugue of thought, image, and emotion on reproductive technology, the act of creation, and one’s ability to know who and what one is. Edie Campbell’s performance captivates from the start–it’s intimate and serious while being warm, energetic, and witty in all the right places. Yet the experience of the show is also very much like reading: subtle, reflective, and very personal. The show is cerebral yet profoundly moving, fully cogent yet without reducing the enigmas of the subject. “Cloning Mary Shelley” (like “Emily Dickinson and I,” performed by Campbell on alternate days) is highly original and, I think, one of the very best shows being done at the Fringe.
’Excellent production’ **** Pachey 74, 11 August 2003
‘Cloning Mary Shelley’ could have been one of those extremely dull, pretentious ‘investigating the author’ shows that the Fringe is littered with. But it’s not. It’s funny, thought-provoking and manages to be educational on both a scientific and literary level, without being boring (quite a feat). The lesson on cloning using Mr Potato Head and friends was inspired.
Alice Mitchell , 30 July 2003
Edie Campbell brings worlds within worlds within worlds alive. She is utterly at one with her material; with the depths and lightness that LynchPin Productions have the inspiration and sense to offer us. I hope press reviews have the sense to get people coming in droves.
British Theatre Guide, 21 May 2003
Having seen Edie Campbell’s Emily Dickinson & I at the Royal Society of Literature a couple of years ago, I was well prepared for the high standard of acting and writing in this new one-woman show. Campbell has an individual style in the way she combines details about her subject with her own life, drawing out points of similarity and difference.
If anything, Mary Shelley is an even more demanding subject than Dickinson, because so much more is known about her, making selection difficult. Campbell and Lynch give us a combination of biography, literature, science, religion, mythology, philosophy and psychology, ranging widely around the well-documented details of Shelley’s life and work.
Visually, the audience’s curiosity is aroused before the show begins: the stage is set with what looks like an operating table; four naked dolls sit on the floor in front of it, along with a scattering of books and papers. As the story unfolds, Campbell tiptoes around the various items, gradually revealing their relevance.
The mood of the piece is, on the whole, low-key and measured, counterbalanced at the centre by a parodic modern-day lecture on cloning, delivered in an excellent German accent, with plenty of Mr Potato Head figures for purposes of illustration. This was visually very stimulating, and I enjoyed the humour.
I’m pleased to see that both Dickinson and Shelley will be appearing at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and wish Lynchpin all the best for their pioneering work. Gill Stoker www.britishtheatreguide.info/index.htm
Marcella Lee, Cedar Rapids Gazette, USA, 10 April 2004
Campbell is a compelling actress, holding our attention throughout the hour-and-a-half monologue. Her timing, pace and emotional honesty are beyond reproach.
About halfway through the evening she dons a white coat and spectacles, assumes a heavy German accent, and explains the process of cloning. This sequence provides not only a clear understanding of complex scientific issues but also a bit of comic relief. Then . . a very serious discussion surrounding the use of cloning is launched. It’s great material. . . The play closes on a sombre note with a touching scene in which Mary Shelley tells of the death of three of her four children. Here the woman’s humanity is illuminated in glowing strokes.
‘New play brings up numerous questions’ Deanna Truman-Cook, Iowa City Press Citizen, USA, 9 April 2004
To say the least, actress Edie Campbell is gutsy.
It takes courage to perform a 90-minute, one-woman play, and even more to share your own life with the audience. On opening night, Campbell gave the audience a lot to chew on. In “Cloning Mary Shelley”, questions of creation, technology and science were raised through Campbell and Shelley’s stories.
At first, it may seem that the two women’s lives have nothing in common, but Campbell digs deep into Shelley’s life to learn about the woman who often is in the shadow of the author. She re-creates Shelley in the play, telling not only about the making of her famed novel, but also the loss of her husband and three of her children.
Campbell mixes into the story not only her love for Shelley as an author, but her own creation of plays and the decision not to have children – a road she has learned is not without consequences. She then carefully adds into the mix the controversy over whether parents should be able to clone their children.
The play moves fast, yet because a creation thread connects everything, the play can be followed easily. Some patrons may become perplexed by the numerous questions the play asks. But more will leave thinking about the connections not only between Shelley and Campbell’s lives, but also among their own. After all, the subject of creation is personal no matter what stand a person takes on it.
A-Level Teacher, Cheltenham festival of Literature, 11 October 2002
As an A-level teacher of pupils trying to approach Frankenstein with psycho-analytical and contextual understanding – I found Edie Campbell’s study of Mary Shelley at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature one of the most moving, polished and profound insights I have ever encountered. I think some of the teenagers in the audience were finding it difficult to cope with the searching references to childbirth, but most were not. I was so impressed by the production that I have recommended it to several schools. Please go on producing such remarkably