Review: Blood and Ice (Old Fire Station)

Blood and Ice by Liz Lochhead narrates the story of Mary Shelley's life and her creation of Frankenstein. I went along to review Oxford Theatre Guild’s production of this play which is currently showing at the Old Fire Station Theatre in Oxford.

On entry to the theatre space, the set (by Liliana Rezende) took us back in time, with furniture and backdrops to set the scene. The two backdrops were helpful to make the audience aware of time and location changes between windowed Mary Shelley being in London in 1824, and an earlier summer by Lake Geneva in 1816. The back drops must have a mention, almost quilted in style, they were eye-catching, not least because of the deliberately bright red, uneven stitching.  Evoking thoughts of both blood from the title of the play, and the way Frankenstein’s Creature was created, this was a striking design.  

Music (I personally really enjoyed this music) by Tim Howes focussed the attention as the performance began, and as the production continued, lighting (designed by David Long) helped to distinguish the switches between locations and historical periods, with each side of the room being lit to show which time period and setting the characters were in. The detail of candles lighting up on either side of the stage when the narrative changed was a good visual focus.

The first scene in 1816 Geneva, where the Shelleys, Percy (Tristan Robinson) and Mary (Beckie Hughes) are staying along with Mary’s step sister Claire (Leila Fass) initially seeming like a carefree holiday, with Shelley in particular being relaxed and playful (to the point of potentially offending passers-by). As the play continues, the back stories of the characters become more visible and show the depths that lay beneath the jollity first displayed.

Clare, at this time, is heavily pursuing neighbour Lord Byron (Jonathan Totman). It becomes clear fairly soon that neither of the men are particularly devoted to any woman, more keen to enjoy their time however they wish to in the moment.

The fifth character onstage, maid Elise, played by Emily Hemphill is almost like a reality check at times, as she delivers subtly scathing lines with an authentic French accent fitting to the location. Despite having the least time on stage this character rapidly became one of my favourites in the show, unleashing pockets of knowledge in barbed comments which had a real impact.

The most positive thing that seemed to come out of this stay in Geneva was Byron’s suggestion that everyone should write a story. With this, the seed was planted which grew into the story of Frankenstein.

By contrast to earlier relatively carefree times, when widowed Mary is alone in London in 1824, she is tortured by memories of her dead children and also of the Creature she created. The voice of the Creature is brought to life by Greg Chandler, and whenever it appears in the play, demanding answers from Mary, there is a striking lighting addition as well. These moments leave you wondering about Mary’s mental state.  The performance by Beckie Hughes gave such a sense of character development from the somewhat naive teenager she would have been in Geneva, to the regretful widow. The anguish she felt because of all of her losses through life were clearly displayed during the second half, in a nuanced performance.

With strength in the writing as well as the performances throughout and faultless technical skills from Elaine Thomson, Vaughan Pierce and Michael Howe, this production is an accomplished one, and I highly recommend seeing it if you are local to Oxford. Blood and Ice has left me wanting to discover more about the life of Mary Shelley, and keen to see what Oxford Theatre Guild bring to the stage next.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Blood and Ice is at the Old Fire Station Theatre until Sunday 25 October.

If you would like to see more of my curtain call photographs from this and other shows, please visit my Instagram.

I was gifted tickets for this show in exchange for an honest review.