Gods and Monsters
Written and Adapted by Tom Mullen,
Based on the Novel Father of Frankenstein by Christopher Bram
New Conservatory Theatre Center
Best known today for directing the pre-Code, horror films Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) but also director of twenty-plus other films of all genres (including the 1936 musical, Showboat), James Whale was in addition widely known and accepted in 1930s and ’40s Hollywood as an out, gay man. By the 1950s, however, studios, McCarthyism, and American society in general had declared homosexuality a forbidden sin, much at the same time increased discrimination of Blacks and mass deportations of Mexican Americans (1954) were also occurring.
Based on Christopher Bram’s 1995 novel (Father of Frankenstein) that conjectures the last days of James Whale’s life before his tragic drowning in his own pool, the stage play Gods and Monsters by Tom Mullen expands and enriches Brams’ imaginations of those final days of the rich, white, and gay Whale– an elderly man in failing heart and mental health in 1957 — to include repeated interactions with his longtime Mexican-American housekeeper and his new gardener, a young, Black ex-Marine. These three societal rejects of the late 1950’s facing much, daily prejudice who themselves share their own, deep-seeded prejudices of each other are the focus of New Conservatory Theatre Center’s West Coast premiere of Mullen’s Gods and Monsters. With a stellar cast that grabs, shakes, and stirs our emotions from laughter to tears, NCTC’s Gods and Monsters is a must-see production that immediately seizes our curiosity, holds us in rapt attention, and leaves us realizing that while much has changed in the past near-seventy years, much is unfortunately the same for queers, Blacks, and immigrants in America.
M.Graham Smith is a master craftsman as director of a play where a random smell, a sudden sound, or a word spoken combine with an aging man’s mental illness to send memories overflowing and blending into scenes of his current life. War zones and movie sets, a old man’s young self and a hateful father, a first attraction and an ex-lover of twenty years– all mix, match, and often actively interact with James Whale as his memories and his reality blend. The melting of real and unreal occur even as he is interviewed by an attractive and adoring college boy or is sketching the “architectural head” and “expressive nose” of his gardener. Remembered clips of the director’s most-famous movies intermingle with recalled scenes of bombs exploding near WWI trenches. Memories of Whale and his boyfriend, David, preparing to dress as Annie Oakley and Wild Bill Hickok for a Hollywood, 1930’s to-do or recollections of the moment’s inspiration of how to create the Bride of Frankenstein’s wrapped head interrupt an iced-tea-on-the-patio conversation or another afternoon of Clay’s, the gardener, new role as Whale’s model. The intermittent yet increasingly frequent comings and goings of memories and dreams are an active part of Jimmy Whale’s daily reality. Smith’s direction along with Mullen’s script ensures an intriguing delving into the the lingering regrets and the mounting sadness of a man once widely sought by the stars and now largely ignored and forgotten.
Donald Currie is jaw-dropping perfect as the British-born James Whale, to the point one can imagine his stepping out of a 1930/40’s Hollywood movie screen and onto the NCTC stage. When not in one of his mental lapses, his Jimmy Whale is the epitome of debonair, exuding a wit that is both charming and cutting to the point at the same time. With a casual toss of the head, he proclaims a list of truisms like “The grass may be greener on the other side but it still needs mowing” and “Fame is like a stubborn stain that will not wash off.” With a devilish twinkle and a slight smirk, he suggests to an overly-eager and quite evidently gay college-age interviewer, “My life is a game of strip poker … Shall we play?” as he suggests that for each question the wide-eyed boy asks, he must remove an article of clothing to get an answer. But when his balance suddenly becomes unsure and his look becomes blank as if lost in another land, Donald Currie’s Whale suddenly ages years and exposes the increasing inevitability of an illness’ wiping away his mental abilities.
The appearance of Clayton Boone as his new gardener provides Whale with one last intrigue — a handsome specimen who happens also to provide him a source of interesting and challenging conversations. Jason M. Blackwell also knocks it out of the park as the initially cautious and skeptical Clayton who wonders at this rich white man’s interest in him. Yet there is an inquisitiveness that builds as Clay’s rather expressionless face begins to melt around the edges and slowly relaxes a bit to enjoy both in countenance and in honest opinion-the sharing of backgrounds, ideas, and opinions with this famous, white dude.
Boundaries of white/black, employer/employee, rich/poor fade enough for his daring to challenge Movie Director Whale’s intentions in having an obvious (to Clay) white Bride of Frankenstein reject as horrible an equally obvious Black Frankenstein. Later, unwanted boundaries are crossed by Whale for a Clay who has learned to like Whale but still at his core, has some inbred disgust for his sexual orientation. In all these transitions and adjustments that Clay undergoes as well as his role in the climatic ending of Whale’s life, Jason M. Blackwell is astoundingly excellent.
And as if that were not enough, along comes Francine Torres as Whale’s long-time, loyal-to-the-bone housekeeper, Maria Ramirez, who clucks and coos in her gentle teasing of Whale, caresses gently the old man’s troubled head when he becomes confused and scared, yet at the same time declares to Clay that “[Whale] will suffer the flames from hell” because he is a confirmed “mariposa” (“homosexual”). With lips that pucker, twist, and tighten; dimples that flare in amusement or irritation; and eyes that say a thousand silent words, Francine Torres is a wonder to watch as Maria silently shows her own initial doubts about serving a Black man on the patio or in indulging yet another young man baring his chest in front of the ogling eyes of her employer but who also opens the door ever so slightly to get to know Clay as a person and not as a stereotype.
For each of these three unlikely cohorts, individual journeys to this stage in their lives has been difficult due to the harsh and unfair treatment of others based just on who they are as gay, Black, or Mexican-American. Each views the other two with built-in stereotypes but also with a caring that the world around them would outright reject. How much risk each should take to cross former closed boundaries and how firm to build bridges across schisms of the past is at the heart of what makes Gods and Monsters a captivating, thought-provoking play timely to our own current world.
Rounding out the cast are the applause-worthy efforts of Ryan Lee and Tyler Aguallo who play Whale’s former lover, movie producer David Lewis, and Whale’s college-age interviewer, Edmund Kay, respectively. Each also takes on a wide range of other roles that are both parts of Whale’s current reality and of his fading mind’s memories, dreams, and near-nightmares.
The crumbling pieces of Whale’s mind along with the haunting memories that suddenly crash into his present reality are depicted by a fissure in Maya Linke’s designed set’s back wall, one half that resembles a WWI trench and the other, a Hollywood movie screen. Onto each are projected flashes of moments and movies from Whale’s past via the mastery of Lana Palmer as projections designer in an atmosphere of musical interludes reminding one of the movie scores of old or of screaming missiles passing overhead in a sky lit by exploding bombs of WWI — just a fraction of Palmer’s all-encompassing sound design. The shock of bombs, the glitz of a Hollywood party, and the sudden onslaught of a failing mind’s electrical storm of mixed-up thoughts are all a challenge met and successfully exceeded by lighting designer Justin A. Partier. Finally, from a soldier’s crisply ironed uniform to a monster lady’s yards of wrapped adornment to a college boy’s twinky-perfect outfit, Bethany Flores Deal dresses this cast in its many and widely varied roles in costumes that deliciously smack of the period and the personalities portrayed.
So much to take in, like, and contemplate about New Conservatory Theatre Center’s production of Tom Mullen’s Gods and Monsters that a second visit to the Decker Theatre is not unreasonable. After all, what monsters also lie within our own beings that we should be confronting? And, what monsters must we be aware that lurk in the news of the day where past prejudices we would have hoped would be eliminated have once again raised their ugly, dangerous heads?
Rating: 5 E, MUST-SEE
A Theatre Eddys Best Bet Production
Gods and Monsters continues through April 5, 2026, in a one-hour, forty-minute (no intermission) production by New Conservatory Theatre Center in the Decker Theatre, 25 Van Ness Avenue at Market Street, San Francisco, CA. Tickets are available online at https://nctcsf.org/, by box office phone at 415-861-8972, or by email at boxoffice@nctcsf.org.
Photo Credits: Lois Tema
