Olivia Tennet stars as Mary Shelley in Auckland Theatre Company’s Mary: The Birth of Frankenstein. In this transcribed interview with Andrew Whiteside, Olivia (Liv) describes the play and her fascination with it.
Andrew:
We’re going to be talking about your new play, Mary, the Birth of Frankenstein. I’m really excited to talk to you about it because what I’ve read and got a sense of it, I think it’s going to be an exciting play. Is that how you’re feeling?
Liv:
I’ve honestly never been so excited and inspired by a script. I knew about this in October last year when we did the photo shoot and casting and now that I’m finally here, it’s a real thrill to be getting into it.
Andrew:
Without spoilers, what can you tell me about the play and the story?
Liv:
It is set in Geneva in 1816. There had been a volcanic eruption and they called it the year of no summer, as it plunged Europe into this complete darkness basically. So that’s kind of the setting. And then the play itself is a creative reimagining of the night that inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. These four kind of incredible minds come together at Lord George Byron’s home and over the course of one sort of hedonistic drug-fuelled night, which actually did happen, you see Mary Shelley get the inspiration to write Frankenstein, but in order to do that, she sort of needs to devolve into madness herself.
Andrew:
Now, Mary herself was an interesting character. found out that she, her parents were Mary Wollstonecroft and William Godwin. Both of whom were very influential in philosophy and of course, in Mary’s case, in women’s rights. So she came from this really fascinating home environment.
Liv:
Absolutely, yeah. We see that as themes in this play as well, the road to modern feminism, which would have been pretty controversial at the time, obviously. It’s still controversial, weirdly, today. yeah, so the themes, you know, are relatable even in modern times.
Andrew:
What’s interesting about Mary Shelley is that she had a really tragic life. She lost three children at young ages. She had one who survived. Her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, drowned. And she herself died at the age of 53, probably from a brain tumour. So a lot of tragedy.
Liv:
Totally, yeah. So when we meet Mary in this play, she’s just lost her first child with Percy Shelley. And in our story, there’s also, I guess…We see Percy and Claire, her stepsister, they’ve just come from France where Mary has been grieving the loss of her first child and during this time Percy and Claire have gotten quite close so we see these fractions within these relationships of Mary looking on thinking, you know, like…I’m still deep in my grief and now I’m having to watch these two sort of become really close which would have just been awful.
Andrew:
Oliver Driver is directing the play and he is a fantastic director and someone who’s very innovative and creative. What kinds of discussions have you been having with him about the play?
Liv:
I’ve worked with Oli before and I just love his approach to work so much. And watching him work in terms of even just his blocking and his sense of play and experimentation and he can give one direction and it completely changes the feel of the whole scene.
Andrew:
Is there anything else about the production that has really captured your imagination that you do you want to share with us?
Liv:
one of our goals is this idea of how we can scare an audience in a theatre because of course we’re used to this horror genre being in the film where we can zoom in and it can… you can scare, the jump scares come from edits which you can’t do in theatre obviously so it’s been really interesting think of ways how we can actually use real theatrical tools to scare an audience and that’s like really exciting. I think it’s going to be really surprising for audiences, something really different to anything else in the ATC program as well. And hopefully, quite empowering.
Andrew:
So final question, do you have a go-to comfort food? Do you have something that, yeah. ⁓
Liv:
Oh gosh, this is probably quite boring, but soup? I’ve been eating a lot, we’ve all actually been eating a lot of soup, guess it’s for those in the winter wanting something warm, but also on the complete opposite, ice cream. Love ice cream.
Mary – the Birth of Frankenstein
23 Aug – 7 Sept 2025
