The yellow green and red is flying high all over town.
Today’s drive southwest to the manor house at Traku Voke
is with a new unit-driver. One I’ve not ridden with before.
He has a face like a bag of fresh turnips and he’s not wearing a seatbelt.
I tell him I’m here to film a new version of ‘Frankenstein’.
I tell him it’s a take on the true story which helped
inspire Mary Shelly to write the original gothic novel.
I point out that I’m playing the role of The Doctor, not The Monster.
It’s important, I feel, to make that distinction clear at the outset.
“Doctor Frankenstein was Lithuanian you know”, says the driver.
“Really?” I reply. Knowing full well that he was actually from Switzerland.
I don’t mention Peter Cushing. I don’t bring up Boris Karloff.
I say that in our version, Doctor Frankenstein is Italian;
a physicist called Giovanni Aldini, who came to England in
1802 to perform theatrically spectacular galvanic experiments
upon the body parts of animals and the corpses of executed criminals.
I say that in our version, this thoroughly-modern Prometheus
wears a frock-coat, some knee-breeches and a pearl earring.
The unit-driver nods and allows this information to sink in for a moment.
He looks me up and down and changes gear, before saying; “you look Italian.”
“By this”, he continues after a pause; “I mean you look like a negro.”
There is silence in the vehicle for a little while.
Snow falls effortlessly on the road in front of us.
And then, smiling like a frightened chimpanzee,
I ask through exposed gums how much further it is
to our intended destination.
Trailer for 'True Horror: Frankenstein'
"It's Alive!"
Herman Munster sings 'Dem Dry Bones'
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