The first time Jeremiah Wray saw himself in full prosthetics he couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing. “It’s such an odd feeling standing in front of a mirror and not recognising yourself within your own reflection.” Wray’s transformation is an essential part of playing The Creature in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein , a story about ambition gone awry.
In both the novel and the stage play, Dr Frankenstein sets out to create a superior being, crafted out of a jigsaw of body parts, and brings it to life. What Frankenstein ends up creating, however, horrifies and repulses him, and he rejects it. Special effects artist Steve Boyle applies prosthetics to Frankenstein actor Jeremiah Wray.
Credit: Glenn Hunt Following a well-received season in Brisbane last year, the production is heading to Melbourne this month. The push and pull between pity and horror is a vital part of the unfolding narrative. Director Nick Skubij needed The Creature to feel real and visceral, and to achieve this they needed to get the look just right.
“We didn’t want to put him in a bodysuit ...
that had just pictures of stitches and things on him,” Skubij explains. “We wanted it to feel like it was flesh.” It should feel so real the audience winces with The Creature’s pain.
So they brought in veteran special effects artist Steve Boyle. “Frankenstein’s monster is on every makeup effects artist’s bucket list ..
. It’s the ultimate monster to make,” says Boyle. This production “cre.