Mechanical, The

Bond Street Theater's The Mechanical, written and directed by Michael McGuigan, is a stylized fairy tale for adults woven around Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" - a disassembling and reassembling of the original, with references to other mechanical creations like Pinocchio, and the titular Mechanical -a chess-playing machine from the 1800's.

Performed by an adept cast of physical theater artists on a fold-out stage with projections, masks and puppets, full of interesting visual images, it is well-lighted (by Benjamin Tevelow) with a soundscape that includes contemporary underscoring and classical selections. Imaginative costumes by Carla Bellisio complete the visual style. There is great detail and creativity in the props and costumes of this really odd tale as we see Shelley writing the story of Frankenstein (a vivid Brian Foley), his wife Elizabeth (the lovely Meghan Frank who designed the puppet girl and also plays Mary Shelley in a mask), and The Creature.

The show has a Commedia feel as two lively, vivacious, cute-as-a-button imps, Joanna Sherman and Anna Zastrow, set the scenes. All the actors "perform" rather than "act" except for Joshua Wynter in three roles, including The Creature. He is mostly realistic-- a contrast in style. The play is full of surprise elements and tangents, and some of the verbals could use clarifying or cutting-- if more of the story could be told by their excellent movement techniques, and some elements that don't advance the story were excised, it would lift this unusual show even higher as an entertainment.