one4review | On 27, Aug 2026

There’s never been a shortage of adaptations of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein – argued in many a student essay to be the first ever science fiction book. The creature, sewn together from the body parts of various corpses remains one of the most enduring monstrous yet tragic figures of all literature and the shambling revenant is now the star of Michael Hocket’s TO BE FRANK.

Hocket stars as the oversized, green-skinned creature and brings a fantastic physicality to the role, struggling with inflexible limbs and only able to communicate in grunts and wordless yells in a portrayal that owes a lot more to the Hammer Horror interpretations than the more loquacious ones in recent films. The show is so physical in fact that around halfway through Hocket has already completely sweated through both his green makeup and artfully undersized suit. The plot, such as It is, tells a very simple story of the creature’s struggles to come to terms with suddenly being alive and working out how to do everything from standing up to making friends.

The creature, (presumably called “Frank”) is given some extremely effective acoustic accompaniment by an electric guitar played by Alanna Hall whose strumming, sliding and plucking is the perfect mirror to Hocket’s erratic and jerky movements and gives the whole show a distinctly cool heavy metal vibe.

While some audience members might be expecting something a bit more gothic and in line with the original source material, TO BE FRANK is pure family-friendly classic circus clowning. In fact, it almost feels like a deliberate attempt to trick a non-clown friendly audience into a clown show, complete with the make-up, balloon tricks and non-verbal communication only really missing buckets and ladders. There is even an argument that Hocket could remove the Frankenstein element entirely and be playing a robot or caveman or any other non-speaking character, though whether this would capture the imagination as much is debatable.

Being so classic in its style, there’s a chance that the relatively low level of plot and high level of physical gags might not draw in everyone. The downside of being non verbal also means that the audience really need to be able to see the performer at all times the gags are happening which the staging in Bunker Three at Pleasance Courtyard doesn’t always allow for, unfortunately. But, that said, there’s plenty to like about this quirky show even if the most frightening thing about it is worrying whether or not a balloon is going to pop.

****
Reviewed by Tom
14:05
5th-30th (No Weds)
Bunker Three at Pleasance Courtyard