MIXING young people with a production of Frankenstein could turn monstrous but this performance has a spark which brings it to life.

There are no pantominesque green-headed monsters but rather stirring performances with certain individuals achieving a maturity well beyond their years.

Sixteen-year-old Harry Machray is absolutely convincing as the much older Victor Frankenstein as he recounts his horrific history to a ship’s captain.

Hunched over with his hands nervously grasping at each other, Machray wonderfully creates Frankenstein’s anxiety while his slow, sad movements around the stage simultaneously convey his calm resignation to the death he knows is coming.

Less subtle however is the audience’s first glimpse of his monster as it is wheeled on a trolley, feet sticking out from the bottom of a white sheet.

As he sits up in the midst of lightning flashes, the performance nears the tackiness it does well to avoid and creates a comedic moment rather than the drama it probably aimed for.

Budding actor John Burns, 19, remedies this in Frankenstein’s death scene.

With tears in his eyes, this burly teen perfectly communicates a vulnerability to Frankenstein’s monster.

Competent performances also came from Robert Walton, Elizabeth and Henry Clerval.