The last three performances of “Frankenstein” at The Powerhouse Performing Arts Center produced by Sheri B. Dean and directed by Stewart F. Lane take place this weekend.

    For the past two weekends audiences of all ages have filled the Powerhouse Performing Arts Center with laughter and have given the very talented actors their rapt listening.

    At the curtain call, applause has swelled for the whole cast and then built to a crescendo when J. Kevin Smith, who portrays Frankenstein, steps forward for a solo bow.

    Directed with flair and style, not gore, this classy “Frankenstein” is not the horror movie audiences are accustomed to. Tim Kelley’s version is filled with rich characters, and riveting dialogue. The author of more than 300 plays for television, theatre, and schools, Mr. Kelley in 1974 adapted Mary Shelley’s classic into a two-act play which has eerily contemporary overtones for our current world. He is the master of the well-constructed play and “Frankenstein” has suspense, atmosphere, anticipation, sound effects, chills and laughs.

    Mr. Kelley’s play focuses on the bonds of love, hate, dread, loyalty and betrayal that develop between the Creature and his maker. An outcast, the unnamed Creature voices to Victor Frankenstein, a man endowed with passionate dreams, knowledge and ambition, heart stopping, life and death questions about accountability and responsibility. A horror story inspires fear and dread, the antitheses of love. “Frankenstein,” when truth be told, is a plea for love.

    In a poetic and passionate plea, the Creature, as human as any man, begs Frankenstein to create a second Creature, a bride for him. Frankenstein agrees. Act II’s actions move quickly with surprising and haunting consequences.