Broadside playbill for Presumption! or, The Fate of Frankenstein

The first theatrical adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was Presumption! or, The Fate of Frankenstein, by Richard Brinsley Peake (1792–1847). Essentially true to the substance of the novel, the play aimed to thrill and chill, while adding humor, musical numbers, and moralizing about Frankenstein’s creation.

Mary Shelley saw Presumption! a month after it debuted, on the eve of her 26th birthday. She was impressed by actor Thomas Potter Cooke’s dynamic and sensitive portrayal of the creature, who, as in her novel, is never given a name. She wrote to a friend: “The play bill amused me extremely, for in the list of dramatis personae came, ------ by Mr. T. Cooke: this nameless mode of naming the unnamable is rather good.”