Barefoot, Professor Sean Ramey crawls his way to the center of ACHS 113, a lecture hall on UNE’s Biddeford campus. Standing, he begins twitching his head and scanning the audience. The unsettling wildness in his eyes makes the 36 viewers uneasy, but that’s what he wants. This weekend, Ramey is no longer a Professor in the School of Arts and Humanities; he is The Creature.
For two days only, Friday the 13th and Saturday the 14th, UNE is hosting ‘Anonymous: A Tale of Mary Shelley,’ written by Kevin O’Leary and presented by Michael Howard, Ed Amatrudo, and Big O Productions. “For me, the old guy, it was so nice to see all these young people here,” said O’Leary after Friday night’s opening show. He is currently writing a new play, which he hopes will eventually premiere in ACHS113.
The play runs for ninety minutes without intermission. It portrays Mary Shelley’s mental state while writing Frankenstein, which was initially published anonymously in 1818 because Mary Shelley feared persecution as a female writer (hence the name, ‘Anonymous‘).
The play is set from 3:30 to 5:00 am and does not jump hours or days between scenes. So, the audience watches Shelley’s descent into madness in real time. “It’s certainly not biographical; it’s a fever dream,” said Tyler Costigan, who played Mary’s husband, Percy Shelley.
Throughout the play, Mary Shelley endures the loss of her newborn daughter and grapples with the death of her mother, all while her husband slowly drugs her tea with Laudanum.
This semi-fictional rendition of Mary Shelley’s writing process seamlessly blends lightly sardonic humor with feminist social commentary. Despite the limited stage space and small number of props, ‘Anonymous’ draws the audience into the world of a hysterical, deeply hurt eighteen-year-old woman who wants nothing more than to have a voice.
“The Creature is a direct reflection of her [Mary Shelley]. It is her rage. It is her love. It is her wanting to be alive, fully, truly, freely alive, but understanding that she can’t do that,” said Ramey.
The marriage between Mary and Percy Shelley feels natural, with both actors portrayed as complex individuals with a deeply complicated relationship. The actors grip you and don’t let go for the duration of the show. “I really love the way that Kevin wrote the relationship between Mary and Percy. It is very clear that Percy loves her and wants her to succeed. He is championing her,” said Marie Stewart Harmon, who played Mary Shelley.
Now that ‘Anonymous‘ has run in ACHS 113, Professor Ramey hopes that “people will see that this space, with some adjustments, would be an excellent black box theatre.”
Ramey explained that the “big picture plan” is to use ‘Anonymous‘ to demonstrate that UNE could convert ACHS 113 into a permanent theater on campus. However, procuring the room for this two-day play was “like working through just a big mighty ball of red tape,” he said.
Dr. Michael Cripps, Director of the School of Arts and Humanities, originally proposed turning ACHS 113 into a theater two years ago. After numerous frustrations related to getting the project off the ground, “he passed it to me,” said Ramey, “and so for the past year, I’ve been trying to get something going.” ‘Anonymous’ is the result of those efforts.
For anyone interested in attending ‘Anonymous’ you can get your FREE ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anonymous-a-tale-of-mary-shelley-tickets-1008539036407?aff=oddtdtcreator. There will be two showings on Saturday the 14th, one at 2 pm and another at 7 pm at the Biddeford campus in ACHS 113.
