“He really loves her,” cries Laura (Melissa Barrera) at the start of Your Monster. Post-break-up, she appears to be reading a weepy romance – but it’s actually a copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The creature may be a monster, but he’s not a monster.
Director Caroline Lindy’s Your Monster is set in the chilling world of musical theatre. Put on a Happy Face from Bye Bye Birdie plays over the opening scene, setting up a theme of juxtaposed horror and musical tropes.
Laura is an aspiring musical theatre actress whose boyfriend Jacob (Edmund Donovan) has written a show for her to star in. When she receives a cancer diagnosis, however, she is promptly dumped and, following a bout of surgery, she discovers that she wasn’t even invited to audition for the musical’s Broadway production. Her best friend Mazie (Kayla Foster), meanwhile, promises support but rarely follows through and provides it. As her world falls apart, Laura, now living alone in her childhood house, starts hearing rumbling in the walls.
