FRANKENSTEIN
- grandguignol -
NUMBER OF CHARACTERS: 10m+3f
YEAR OF ORIGIN: 2002
SUMMARY:
Resolute in his endeavour to save a tribe endangered by many a misfortune (famine, low birth rate, hostile environment), doctor Frankenstein creates a new human being in his laboratory, a monster made out of various human parts. This “super-human” would bring freedom and overall prosperity to the community with his strength and mind.
Doctor Frankenstein however, forgets, one small detail: the sexual organ. Thus, the erotic drive of the new Master is directed towards dictatorship. The army, the police and the legal system are all subordinated in the name of the ideal of a great and mighty state. Fear is carefully strewn: all manifestations of gaiety are prohibited, all songs and celebrations forbidden; only discipline and a precisely functioning structure (like that of an anthill) are what is important.
The Master is gradually overcome by paranoia. With the help of police and spies, he eliminates all those he believes to be plotting against his life. A court marshal is established; the streets are bathed in blood. The community loses its highest ranking officers, state officials and intellectuals while the people barely survive amid permanent war-waging.
As doctor Frankenstein is also among those executed, the Master is left without the medications and substances that keep him alive. His body slowly decomposes and putrefies. With his last breath, he declares: Let not the bastards rejoice his death, for sooner or later a new Master will appear, one more powerful and even more merciless than him.
BIOGRAPHY:
Vanča Kljaković was born March 29, 1930 in Split where he graduated from the Classical Gymnasium. He received his B.A. in Directing in the class of Dr. Branko Gavella. He was employed as house director in the Gavella Drama Theatre until 1970, when he became a free-lancer. He was again employed in the Croatian National Theatre in Split from 1996 until his retirement. He made several full-length feature films (The Key, Eleventh Commandment, Do You Dig, Pal, Slow Motion, Mar¬ju¬ča and the Death) and wrote and directed for radio and television.
Plays produced in professional theatres:
Encounters (Gavella Drama Theatre, Zagreb, 1968)
Bobo (Gavella Drama Theatre, Zagreb, 1970)
The Story of a Crime (Croatian National Theatre Split, 1993)
Yours Antiša (Istrian National Theatre, Pula, 1994)
Testament (Split Youth Theatre, 1995; Gavella Drama Theatre, Zagreb, 1997)
ADDRESS:
Vanča Kljaković, Mažuranićevo šetalište 47, 21 000 Split
Tel: +385 21 548 837