Just say no to plastic

Fake Plastic Fish blog is the blog I wish I were doing. Blogger Beth Terry is trying to lower her plastic usage. Her blog is an outstanding resource for ways to avoid plastic. For example, she recently purchased a soy milk machine to avoid the plastic caps that comes with every brand of soy milk on the market.

Reflecting on all the plastic in the world makes one realize that it is pretty near impossible to live life plastic free in our society today. Plastic is everywhere, animals are choking on it and our landfills are comprised of stinking piles of leeching toxic plastics. So little is recycled.

I have a container I am filling with plastic caps from various bottles. I'm thinking I can do a wall mosaic with them some day. I've stopped buying any kind of plastic wrap or bags except for trash bags. Too many plastic bags come into my house without invitation, even though I'm using cloth bags for shopping all the time. They are foisted upon us without thought and we take them mindlessly home. Produce, pasta, bulk foods, even socks and underwear come in plastic bags. It takes determination to find ways to purchase goods without the attendant plastic.

At Fake Plastic Fish, I learned that most tin cans these days are lined with plastic. And glass jars come with lids that also contain plastic . You just can't win, when trying to avoid the stuff. What I admire most about this blogger's project is that she mails back packaging that she cannot recycle to the manufacturer with a request they switch to something biodegradable.

If I were young and just starting out in life, I'd be trying to invent compostable packaging that can be manufactured sustainably. Whenever I travel along Kenmore Boulevard, I imagine all the store fronts and small buildings filled with green businesses based upon sound environmental science and sustainable practices. Imagining a Kenmore Boulevard in a society that does not move in this direction is too horrifying to handle.

Do the Right Thing

As you know, this is International Buy Nothing Day, a great idea that needs to happen more than once a year. Could we have a weekly Buy Nothing Day and still survive? How about a weekly Drive Nowhere Day? Or a Use No Plastic Day?

But, but...there will always be exceptions, won't there? What if you have to buy medications for a sick cat or you have to buy a part to make your toilet work? Or in my case today, what if you find out one of your students got hit by a van and is in the hospital?

I packed up some kid books and headed over to Children's Hospital today. I didn't know whether my student would be in any condition to read or to be read to, so I stopped in the gift shop -- even though I knew full well it was Buy Nothing Day. I found a stuffed lion to represent an African play my student had appeared in recently.

Up in the room, the patient was pretty miserable with a broken leg bone at the hip, and other damage. He's going to be all right eventually, but right now there's some major pain to get through and a whole lot of healing ahead. The books will come in handy in a few more days, but right now all the patient wanted to do was to hug the toy lion and smile out a thanks to me for being there. We had a good visit, and that lion stayed nestled in the crook of his good shoulder all the while I was there.

I don't know if there is a moral to this story. The stuffed lion was probably not a fare trade item made in a factory where workers are fairly paid and have medical coverage. I should have stopped at The Market Path to look for a gift. That would have meant a slight detour in my trip to the hospital. But like most people, I didn't think ahead and just went with the impulse. Good intentions are so easily lead astray by what is convenient and what is not.

To make up for my transgression, I will Buy Nothing tomorrow. Here's why:

Thanksgiving at the Working Man's Cafe

I was going to post a re-run of Ray Davies singing Thanksgiving Day, with the thought of it becoming an annual tradition, but alas -- the footage is no longer available.

But while searching -- hooray! From the BBC Electric Proms concert, here is Ray singing his new instant classic. For everybody who grew up with a greasy spoon, rather than a silver one. Access the lyrics here, and sing along!

"World peace begins in the kitchen..."

...reads the manifesto underneath VegiTerranean's logo on the menu. Chrissie Hynde's new restaurant in Akron finally opened last week and I was fortunate enough to get a reservation for a late dinner tonight.

One week before the restaurant was to open, management decided to make it exclusively vegan rather than the announced vegetarian format. How thrilling! I plan to go there a lot and explore my way through the entire menu.

Tonight I had a pizza on special. It featured mushrooms and squash. Since going vegan last summer, I admit to having had the occasional strong longing for pizza with cheese toppings. My pizza had whole wheat crust and was topped with wild mushrooms and a sauce mixed with squash. They also offer a pizza called "The Ghoulardi" with banana peppers, olives, mushrooms, red onion with spicy marinara.

The menu includes appetizers, soups, salads, pastas, the afore-mentioned pizzas and entrees made with something called Gardein, garden grown protein. My meal tonight didn't include any meat substitute, but I can tell you the soy cheese on the pizza was deliciously melted and tasted great.

Finally, a place where soy cheese and other plant-based forms of protein are the norm, not the unattainable. The restaurant is open evenings from 4 - 11 and will begin serving a lunch menu this Friday and continue Mondays through Fridays. They will eventually be open for lunch on weekends as well, and then plan to be open for breakfast hours with vegan pastries -- yum!

The ambiance was stripped down and sleek at the same time. What a great gift for Akron! Thank you Chrissie! Wonderful job chef J Scott Jones and the wait staff!

VegiTerranean is located at 21 Furnace St on the ground floor of the new Northside Lofts. That's the building at the foot of Luigi's off of old Howard Street. Phone for reservations: 330-374-5550. You will need them -- the place was hopping! It was great running into old friends and former students in town for the holidays. If you have guests coming in over the holidays, there is now some place very special to take them.

Congratulations No Impact Man!

On this day in 2006 one man and his family began to live making zero impact upon the planet. They ate vegetarian and bought local. They biked, walked and scootered their way around town. They took the stairs instead of elevators. They did without a laundry machine and a refrigerator. On the rooftop, one small solar panel powered Colin's lap top.

Colin Beavan blogged it all, and today marks the end of his experiment and the beginning of making many decisions about how he, his wife, young daughter and dog choose to live on the island of Manhattan.

His end of year post is a must-read. Looking forward to the book!

Congratulations Colin. Your comments are heart-felt and honest -- I'm so glad to read that you plan to continue blogging. It will be interesting to read about how your family adjusts to the temptations of comfort and convenience.

We all have seven years to lower our carbon emissions or learn to live on a greatly altered planet. If we don't start making a lower impact, the day will come when we will be living in perpetual drought with water a scare resource, surrounded by ever growing pollution in air, water and earth.

Grim news but no headlines

UN scientists released a new report over the weekend, one that should have achieved screaming headlines around the world. The end is nearer than you think, especially if you don't put much trust in your leaders and your fellow human beings to cease releasing carbon into the atmosphere. Since 2000, the earth has heated up 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius). In a follow up story in Sunday's Washington Post:

To avoid heating the globe by the minimum possible, an average of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, the world's spiraling growth in greenhouse gas emissions must end no later than 2015, the report said, and must start to drop quickly after that peak. By 2050, carbon dioxide and other atmospheric polluting gases must be reduced by 50 to 85 percent, according to the estimates.

What happens if we don't meet that 2015 emissions goal? It doesn't look pleasant:

But if the world misses that target and does not stabilize carbon dioxide emissions until 2030, for example, the planet's temperature will increase by as much as 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit above 2000 temperatures, the report said. That level of warming would result in widespread extinctions of species, a slowing of the global currents, decreased food production, loss of 30 percent of global wetlands, flooding for millions of people and higher deaths from heat waves.

2015 is just around the corner. With billions of human beings crowding the planet and scrambling for resources, things are not looking very positive. Americans, for the most part, are still living a mindless disposable lifestyle, without bothering to think about what life will be like for their children and grandchildren.

This latest UN report makes it plain: those of us alive in a mere 7 years, are going to experience the sad decline and rapid downfall of the human race that could not save itself from its own compulsion toward comfort and convenience at any cost.

Do something useful -- Buy Nothing on Nov 23rd

As the holiday season approaches, ask yourself what do we, as a species, really need? More stuff? More calorie laden foods? More automobile exhaust on the freeways and in the parking lots of America's malls?

Or maybe we really need to stay home and clear out our junk. Donate the things that are usable to people who could really use them. Recycle items that otherwise clog our landfills.

On Friday, November 23rd, as the mindless masses head off before dawn to wait in line at Walmart and other big box stores, I'll be sleeping in. I won't be driving my vehicle that day, instead I'll be using the day off from work to put on some music and dance around the house. I may read a book or write a few emails, and maybe go for a walk with Oberon if the weather allows it.

What I won't be doing is spending money on stuff I don't need or stuff that others don't need. I hope you will consider joining in this coming Friday. Buy Nothing and blog about what you didn't buy!

For more information, visit the incredibly creative group known as Adbusters.

Days

Yes, it's been days since I posted. The fall production took over everything this past week and it will take a few more days until I catch up on who is ahead in the polls, what the Democrats are still not accomplishing, and a huge pile of blog postings captured in the Village Reader. All that and the house needs cleaning and still more winterizing.

The leaves finally decided to fall this weekend. I fill up my composting bin with them, then use the rest to top off various flower beds and other areas in need of a good mulch for the winter. I've got a box of spring bulbs waiting to go into the ground before it freezes.

It looks like I won't be getting to that full out review of Working Man's Cafe until the long Thanksgiving weekend. So for your Friday night musical entertainment, here's another selection from the BBC's Electric Proms of 2007. Thank you for the days, Ray Davies!

Now that you've found your Shangri-la

We are way too busy for anything other than listening to Ray Davies and the Crouch End Festival Chorus performing Shangri-la at the BBC's Electric Proms. "Proms" is short for promenading, which is what people liked to do at the original classical music festival from which the Electric Proms drew its inspiration and name. Ray was a featured act this past Oct 28th. Thanks to the person who got this up on YouTube so quickly. Let's have the rest, please!

Come on then, everybody sing along:

Local TV anchor to appear on stage and on PBS 45/49

From a Weathervane press release regarding Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat:

Eric Mansfield of WKYC-TV3 will be taking a few nights off from the News on Channel 23 to make his stage debut at Weathervane! He will be singing and dancing his way across the stage as Joseph’s father, Jacob.

The show goes up Nov 23 and runs through Dec 15th.

For all the details, check Weathervane's web site.

And don't forget to watch Eric's first documentary, to be aired on Local PBS station 45/49 (cable position 10) tonight at 10 PM. In "Reporting the War -- the Journalists' Perspective," Eric will be interviewing local print, radio and television journalists on how the war has been covered by the media. Go here to read a press release.

Stagehands Local One on strike

Pictured here, a sub level of Radio City Music Hall, a domain of New York City stage hands.

Riding on the subway to see a show at the end of this past September, I listened in on a conversation between two stage hands. They were discussing a potential lock out by the Theatrical Producers on Sunday, September 30. That didn't happen -- just another bluff, but tensions have remained high and negotiations were going no where. So today, the stagehands walked and many Broadway shows are shut down.

According to Local One:

We are professionals and unashamed to state that we are defending good middle class jobs that pay our mortgages, feed our families and allow our children to attend good schools.

The producers' numbers, so widely distributed, are misleading at best and often bogus.

Their press release celebrated an offer of 16.5% increase in wages. But the producers failed to mention their offer was accompanied by a 38% cut in jobs and income.

We are the caretakers of the theatre, the protectors of the workplace. We keep it safe for all of us. Six days a week, sometimes seven, we are the first to arrive and last to leave.

What are the strikers fighting for? Shockingly, the producers want to get rid of the job of the flyman/woman. This is the person responsible for any piece of scenery, object or person hat "flies" into the performing area.

The producers' attack on flymen is ignorant to the basic safety concerns in any theater. Without a flyman, who would be addressing safety problems over head? Who would be checking rigging eight times a week? Who is the first line of defense against any fire in the fly space?

Why do you think there are still fire hooks and extinguishers, by law, located on the fly floors? And, if there were not a flyman on the grid, how long do you think it would take for someone on the stage to reach that fire-fighting equipment?

Automation? We've long embraced it. Local One is more productive thanks to automation. We've modernized along with the newest technology. We build, install, manage, and repair all of it. We operate safely tons of scenery moving around in the dark and at breakneck speed without injury to you or us.

And they do an excellent job of it too. There's something sublime about watching Broadway scene changes -- not a second wasted, and it is all live -- happening like magic before your eyes, not something made of pixels and digital tape.

So what about Broadway ticket pricing? Ticket prices these days amaze the heck out of me -- as I stand in line to pay $60 to a hundred bucks for 2 1/2 hours of entertainment? I'd feel a lot better if I know the actors and the technicians are making a decent wage and can afford to live and raise a family in the city where they work.

The producers will also fail to tell you and the press that Local One labor over the last few decades remains 8% of the overall cost of producing a Broadway show. We get raises only when negotiated, but the producers raise ticket prices with every new hit, not to mention $450 premium pricing.

Last year, the League announced Broadway box office grosses of $939 million. Secret is the income from licensing, secondary rights, film rights and the hugely lucrative merchandise sales.

The biggest secret of all is the producers' real profits.

The producers are also insisting on cutting minimums for load-ins/outs. A load is much more than unloading trucks. It is heavy work and it is also highly technical as scenery, lighting and effects are unloaded, set up in a new space and configured to work safely and according to plan.

The Village Green salutes the stage hands on Local One and stands in solidarity with them. I had been thinking about shooting up to NYC over one of the upcoming breaks. There were some shows I wanted to see that are now dark and shuttered. I'll gladly go Off and Off off B'way to satisfy my play going needs. I'm thinking the strike won't go nearly as long as the writers' strike as the theatres will be dark without any possibility of re-runs or reality programming!

Hang tough, stage hands:

In these negotiations, we put everything on the table except the safety of the stage crew and everyone entering the theater. The producers' attack on minimums is an attack on the safety and efficiency of the load-in of shows. It is also an insulting failure to recognize the size, the scope and the technical difficulty of the work we perform and the industry that is our life.

We stand ready to resume negotiations at any time and we stand ready to defend ourselves from the implementation of unsafe, unsound and unacceptable work rules that the producers are threatening to enact.

We are Local One. We are all under attack.

Respectfully and Fraternally,

The Membership of Local No. One

Peace in our time

Working Man's Cafe is the only music I'm listening to these days. Just over and over until I can sing along with each song. I don't have time to write the all encompassing review yet and can't promise to get it written until the fall play is up and running.

So tonight I'm contemplating this song that might be an anthem addressing global conflicts, but instead is a wry take on a relationship:

Hey girl, let's begin again and try to help ourselves
We're like weary warriors who just came back from hell
You can keep your territory, I will stay in mine
Carefully negotiate and leave this battle behind

Then the mighty chorus with a magnificent build:

All we deserve is some peace in our time
Unconditional love is better
Peace in our time

The phrase "Peace in our time" makes me consider how many years of my life on this planet have coexisted with some kind of ongoing war being waged. The background and soundtrack to my life: wars in Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Nicaragua, Grenada, Iraq. Wars in the ghetto and wars against poverty and drugs.

And at home behind closed doors, wars with a significant other:

The two of us can't take it
Gotta have a truce so we can start
To put it together
Otherwise we're gonna fall apart

The singer is one who has been down this road before:

It really doesn't matter
'cos the world keeps going round
just like a roller coaster
If you let it, it will crush you down

The song maintains its interest by the continual interweaving of the personal story with the imagery of global conflicts, and then ending with a gut-wrenching image:

I'm tearing up the bunch of
Angry letters that you sent
Peace in our time

Voting to tax myself

Tomorrow's election will probably be a big snooze for most Summit County voters. In Akron, there are only a couple of contested races, and none in my ward. It's going to be cold and rainy, just the kind of day most people will choose to go home and turn up the furnace rather than go out to the polls to vote to increase their taxes.

Children's Services and the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Board are seeking citizen approval of continuing funding so they can provide services to those who need society's help in order to survive. It seems like a no-brainer to vote for these two issues.

Issue 20 (ADM) would increase the monthly cost per tax payer from $3.50 per month to $7.53 (on a property valued at $100,000) while Issue 21 (Childrens' Services) would increase our taxes on average of 90 cents per month (likewise on property valued at $100.00).

This seems like chump change to me -- certainly nothing that's going to make me cry out in pain on pay day. And considering the work these agencies do for our citizens most in need of protection and assistance, we all need to make the effort to stop by the polls and give our support by voting Yes on both issues.

Not your normal Autumn Almanac

Autumn is slow getting to the Village Green. Look at my maple tree photographed yesterday -- not a yellow gold leaf to be seen.

There were no leaves to rake yet. Instead, I toured round the garden.
Two nights of frost have yet to have any effect here. My gardens, back and front, are sheltered somewhat, with a micro-climate that continues to produce roses, nasturtiums, zinnias, and snapdragons.

In the vegetable garden, I found a lone bee visiting a neglected stalk of broccoli. All the carrot seeds produced about 6 plants, only one of which I've pulled. That carrot was about 1 inch in diameter and one inch in length. I need to study up on my carrot gardening for next summer. The tomatoes are long gone , but I found a large sturdy pepper hiding nestled near the herb bed.


Inside, the transition from screens to storm windows is complete. This weekend, I installed some bamboo window shades, and replaced the summer curtains with heavier ones in preparation for the winter to come, as it will eventually. It is the season to patch and seal, tidy up and put away the warm weather clothing, the garden tools and furniture.

It feels like I'm on time, but the leaves are not on deadline. Off in the distance, a hazy patch of yellow paints the the green trees on Kenmore's great cliffs that overlook Summit Lake, hinting of splendid displays to come.

The weatherman predicts possible snow on Tuesday. We are prepared here, with all cracks caulked. The energy efficient furnace will not have to work too hard and hopefully, the gas bill won't be too outrageous.

Preservation Out Take

This is a hoot -- for those few folks who have ever heard the Kinks Preservation Acts I and II. Thanks to Neil of the Kinks Preservation Society for passing this along.

Some clever person came up with this rare "out take":

Medea at Actors' Summit

My life is overwhelming me right now, with mega deadlines and other craziness. However, I would feel derelict in my duties as Village Town Crier, if I didn't encourage my local readers to check out Medea at Actors' Summit this weekend. It's gotten rave reviews, and deservedly so. Sally Groth is a sensational Medea and you really ought to see this performance.

Cameras and camcorders are fairly recent innovations and we are limited to only a little bit more than a century's worth of moving images from the past. However, when you go to see an ancient Greek drama or comedy, you are transported back through 2,400 years where you meet up with characters who are startlingly familiar. Jason -- what a bastard! It is difficult not to side with Medea (at least until the gory end of her two children) -- what a powerful woman, and at the same time a monster.

Medea is playing through Nov 4th. If you haven't seen any Euripides lately, this is your chance!

Mike Gravel live tonight on the web

We interrupt the continuing review of songs from Ray Davies' Working Man's Cafe to send you a Mike Gravel update. He is being excluded -- wrongly -- from the debate tonight, but has made arrangements to do a web cast at the same time as the MSNBC debate and will be answering the same questions put to the candidates.

Tuesday, October, 30, 2007

Village Green

Even if you've read this, it's worth repeating.

Corporate censorship has taken over the Presidential race. I have
been excluded unfairly from the MSNBC Debate at Drexel University
this Tuesday. Why? GE owns MSNBC and NBC. Last minute, they
claimed I did not raise enough money.

I won't stand for this in my country!

Join me for this truly historic event, tonight! LIVE.
http://Gravel2008.us/LIVEDEBATE

I am broadcasting via WebCast tonight from Philadelphia
across from the debate site at Drexel University and I will be
answering many of the same debate questions that Hillary and the
others are answering at the MSNBC debate. So join me on the web
at 6pm PT, 7pm MT, 9pm ET at http://Gravel2008.us/LIVEDEBATE
...bookmark this page

If you live in the Philadelphia area, I will be at World Cafe Live
http://www.worldcafelive.com with hundreds of supporters and
anti-war protestors to protest GE (the owner of MSNBC and NBC) and
corporate media censorship in this election. Join me at "World Cafe
Live" -- doors open at 8:30pm ET.

Even if you have donated to my campaign, I urge you to donate
again. I need you to take a stand with me today. According to
NBC, money talks. Let's show them we can speak up!

Yours in gratitude,
Senator Mike Gravel
http://Gravel2008.us
http://Gravel2008.us/LIVEDEBATE -- link good for tonight only

Official Mike Gravel 2008 Campaign | P.O. Box 948 | Arlington, VA 22216-0948

No One Listen

Hey man, call the D.A., call the National Guard,
Call the President
Call anyone in the land of the free
'Cos they ain't gonna listen to me...

This one better get some airplay in New Orleans. For those who haven't been paying attention, Ray Davies has spent some difficult times in New Orleans, but he's not singing the slow and pain-filled blues. "No One Listen" is a hard-driving and relentless rock-out of a song.

The voice on the phone says we'll
get right back but they say
All the computers are down
And the chief prosecutor had to go out of town
No one listen, nobody listens
No one listens to me...

I feel like that a lot these days. So many examples everywhere I turn: The Executive Branch only listens to the Decider, while Republicans refuse to listen and Democrats claim they are listening but can't act. Meanwhile presidential candidates claim they don't listen to lobbyists or corporate donors.

Hey man call the government
Write to City Hall, United Nations
Tell the preacher at the missionary
'Cos he ain't gonna listen to me.
But nobody listen to me.

The more I look around my city, the more depressed I get at all the for-sale signs sprouting like fungi in the front yards of every neighborhood, rich to poor.

Blame the hurricanes, blame the drug trade,
The economy,
Blame the ghettos in the land of the free
'Cos they ain't gonna listen to me

Mayor says we are going to have a "green print" for Akron, but dumps that into the laps of the non-profit organization responsible for planting flowers around the city. Um, don't you think we need a few scientists, engineers, architects, water and energy experts and probably lawyers involved in the planning?

Everybody knows it's a cryin' shame
how the little guy gets kicked around
Everybody I talk to agrees that if you wanna get
heard its connections that count

Tell the National Guard
Tell the talk show on the TV
Tell the winos in the old man bar
'Cos they ain't gonna listen to me.

Down Route 93

Singing along to Working Man's Cafe, I made it to Berlin in just about an hour. This time I chose to avoid the interstates and take old state route 93 which runs from Kenmore down through the Portage Lakes passing through several old Ohio canal towns. Once past Canal Fulton, the road was relatively empty. The fall trees were in the best color they are going to achieve this long drought-ridden autumn. This grey dreary day produced light rain intermittently, but no complaints here, as the fields and trees need even more than was produced today.

One of the themes in Ray Davies' new solo CD is the pervasiveness of American influences around the world. The title song long mourns the loss of places where working people used to hang out and chat, family owned places with counter tops and familiar faces. The singer goes to the shopping centre of town trying to find a place where he'll fit in among all the retail outlets:

Bought a pair of new designer pants
Where the fruit and veg man used to stand
I always used to see him there
Selling old apples and pears

The fast food franchises began to disappear as Route 93 headed into Ohio farm country. I looked everywhere for a cafe, but there were none to be found, only large tourist trap places selling mounds of Amish goods. There are no cafes, only Cheese Barns featuring "authentic Amish meals."

Going deep into Amish territory is like driving straight into Ohio's rural past. Every now and then a jarring sight comes into view: an Amish woman wrestling with an enormous gasoline powered lawn mower on a steep bank by the road.

A modern egg factory barn contains the non-organic egg producing caged hens that supply Sauder's Eggs. Don't they look happy? Read the description of how Sauder's produce their organic eggs as opposed to their non-organic eggs and then ask yourself why are people still buying eggs from chickens that eat pesticide laden feed, are shot with hormones, antibiotics, fungicides and herbicides?

Berlin, OH is a tourist center in the middle of Holmes county and you know you are there when suddenly the traffic starts to back up. Just around the corner is Zinck's fabric store, a mecca for the serious costumer looking for a variety of fabrics at bargain prices.

Driving back, I begin to count the fast food chains, noting that Subway has made the most inroads into Amish country. I wanted to take some photos, but the rain grew steadier and more determined, so instead I hunkered down inside the cab of my truck, singing along to Working Man's Cafe, the words starting to stay in my memory and the haunting tune now deeply ingrained in my psyche.

Everything around me feels unreal
Everywhere I go it looks and feels like America
We've really come a long way down this road
Improving our surroundings as we go
Changing our roots and culture...

Frankenstein (A De-Monstration)

If you live in or around Akron, do not miss this production. New World Performance Laboratory is back with another presentation of their ongoing work, Frankenstein (A De-monstration) at UA's Sandefur Theatre. You can see it once more this weekend on Friday, Oct 26th at 8 PM and again on November 1-3.

Do not expect to see anything conventional, because with this company the conventional is a dry husk that is shed again and again. They are in search of the essential. They don't "pretend," they do their actions and in the doing reach the audience in ways we hardly ever experience in the theatre. NWPL's co-directors are James Slowiak and Jairo Cuesta. We are so fortunate that Akron, Ohio became the home to a theatre whose roots reach directly back to the work of 20th century theatre revolutionary, the Polish Laboratory director Jerzy Grotowski.

In this pieced and stitched together response to Mary Shelley's work, we are privy to the creation of the monster story and perhaps into the inner workings of the roving band of creative intellects that burst out of the British Isle in the But there are more monsters lurking within the dynamics of the Percy/Mary /Byron relationship and we are taken up by the very breath and heartbeat into the actions. I was very conscious of my own heart pounding as the actions intensified, which had the unusual effect of allying me with the monster. It seemed to me my heart wasn't my own at that part, and like the monster I could only wonder at the the strange organ beating inside me. It takes an amazing amount of energy and focus to create something so charged with shocking electricity.

I could not get over the shoes worn by the cast. All were wearing the most uncomfortable and unsuitable shoes, except for Frankenstein/Shelley (Chris Buck) and The Creature (Jairo Cuesta) who both were working in bare feet. Lord Byron (Justin Hale) in high heels and The Man (Alex White) in medium heeled pumps worked their change in status to perfection. The Woman (Debora Totti) wore men's dress shoes, while Mary Shelley (Megan Elk) and Elizabeth (Jamie Hale) wore tortuously high heels. This all added up to heighten the gender issues that swirled around the life and times of Mary Shelley and her comrades in art.

The costumes (Inda Geib), lighting (Christ Hariasz) and set (Benjamin Hardin) enhanced the patched-together theme of the material, which could also be a metaphor for the group's creative process. Material used for this production includes Mary Shelley's novel and journals, the poetry of Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, Milton, and texts drawn from Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women, The Rainbow by DH Lawrence and original material written by the actors. There are references to and lines from classic horror films.

I was fortunate to see the first rendition of this piece last spring. It has grown tremendously, and yet still has that initial fire and astonishing power that made me want more at the initial viewing. I'm definitely going back for another look this time round. NWPL always delivers masterpieces that reveal more and more the deeper you look into them.