Monsters of the Villa Diodati Brings Gothic Thrills to Creative Cauldron
In the summer of 1816, a volcanic eruption on the other side of the world plunged Europe into a cold, storm-lashed season that came to be known as the year without a summer. On the shore of Lake Geneva, a small circle of writers found themselves trapped indoors at the Villa Diodati: Lord Byron, his young physician John Polidori, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, his lover Mary Godwin, and her stepsister Claire Clairmont, who was already carrying Byron's child. To pass the gloomy days they read ghost stories aloud, until Byron challenged everyone to write a tale of terror of their own. That challenge gave the world Frankenstein and The Vampyre, two of the most enduring monsters in literature. Creative Cauldron brings that famous gathering back to life with a revival of Monsters of the Villa Diodati, the gothic musical by Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith, now playing in Falls Church through Nov 1, 2026.
The show first premiered at Creative Cauldron in 2016 as part of the company's Bold New Works for Intimate Stages initiative, and this return engagement has been greeted as an even darker, richer, and more seductive version of the original. Conner, who wrote the music and lyrics and also directs, and Smith, who wrote the book and co-wrote the lyrics, frame the story as a memory, with Mary Shelley looking back on that summer years later as she prepares a new edition of Frankenstein. The material needs no modern spin to grab an audience, because the true story is wild enough on its own. Free love, jealousy, ambition, religion, grief, addiction, and scandal all simmer together in the villa, and the musical shows how the people who created these monsters wrestled with demons of their own.
The production's visual world has drawn especially warm praise. Margie Jervis has reimagined the villa with soaring gothic arches painted in a malachite finish that seems to shift between elegant marble and staring, monstrous eyes. Lynn Joslin's lighting bathes the walls in an eerie blue for scenes out on the lake, where a boat is ingeniously conjured from a triangular curtain and an overturned table. Tessa Grippaudo's Regency costumes pick up the set's palette of green and red, nodding to Frankenstein's creature and the vampire, with Mary wrapped in mourning black velvet and Byron cutting a devilish figure in crimson, complete with an exotic turban.
The score moves through a striking range of styles, from haunting, keening harmonies to a lovely setting of Byron's poem "She Walks in Beauty," a sharp and very funny number skewering the celebrity gawkers who followed the poets around (staged with rolled-up manuscripts used as telescopes), and a full-throttle glam rock showcase for Byron himself. Music director Garret Jones keeps the band supporting the singers rather than overwhelming them, and the performers deliver strong acting and singing across the board.
David Landstrom, who played Polidori in the original production, steps into the role of Byron and commands the stage with every ounce of the poet's dangerous charisma, his voice gliding from a delicate falsetto to a gritty rock tenor. Susan Derry returns as Mary Shelley, bringing wit, intellect, and warmth to a woman who preaches free love yet can't quite escape her own jealousy. Alan Gutierrez-Urista is heartbreaking as Polidori, the overlooked and belittled doctor haunted by personal torment, while Rachel Cahoon gives Claire a hard, glittering edge that eventually cracks to reveal a wounded heart. Ben Ribler rounds out the ensemble as a conflicted Percy Shelley, a man who embraces radical ideals without fully grasping what they cost the people around him.
Monsters of the Villa Diodati runs approximately two hours with one intermission and is recommended for ages 13 and up. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2 pm at Creative Cauldron, 127 East Broad Street in Falls Church, Virginia. Creepy, sensual, and gorgeously designed, it is an ideal grown-up night out for the Halloween season, but with the run ending Nov 1, theatregoers will want to get their tickets soon.