Frankenstein in Love performed by the Monash University Student Theatre in the Collingwood Underground Carpark is a thrilling descent into the macabre, desperate world of monsters and men who behave like monsters. Strong performances are enhanced by impressive lighting techniques and clever use of space. The delivery is creative and varied – resulting in a show that is as delightfully unpredictable as it is spine chillingly exciting.

Conjured up by writer filmmaker Clive Barker, Frankenstein in Love is set in the middle of a military coup led by the marvelously portrayed El Coco (Benjamin Marshall). Rebels overrunning the city discover that a man named Joseph Frankenstein (Thomas Middelditch) was allowed, under the previous dictatorship, to mutilate the bodies of the government’s enemies in the name of science. The play reveals what happens when experiments turn on their creator.

With a stage defined by not by walls but by light, nothing about this show is cliché – well, with the exception of Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘Wedding march’. Set in a carpark, the audience is seated on plastic chairs, wooden benches and for some of the 150-minute performance, even the floor. Paired with such an unconventional delivery, the echoic cavernous carpark couldn’t have provided a creepier atmosphere.

Utilizing space, the show relies on the use of shadows, allowing the audience to see newcomers, primarily death, before the characters do. Big on dramatic effects, there is blood and gore pumped realistically into every scene – no tomato sauce here. Acoustically though, the show was halting with dialogue occasionally drowned out by background music or indistinguishable from the dialogue of other characters – a disappointing setback for a show otherwise so engaging.

Despite this, the tremendous talent of the performers was obvious. Batty doctor Lazaro (Tegan Harrod) who stabs holes in her brain “to relieve the pressure” is a welcome light in what is otherwise a very dark performance. Far from “dressing an abortion in Sunday clothes and sending it to school,” it is obvious that Frankenstein in Love is the baby of a lot of hard work and dedication – an absolute must see.