On Saturday, October 4, 2025, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts presented Liam Scarlett’s searing production of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein with San Francisco Ballet (SFB), in co-production with The Royal Ballet of London.

SFB’s choice of Tamara Rojo as Artistic Director reflects her visionary leadership prior to joining the company in 2022. Since then, she has proven herself a master architect of artistry and direction. As both a celebrated former principal dancer and an astute artistic leader, Rojo brings emotional intelligence and fire to the company through her understanding of narrative, musicality, casting, and so much more. In doing so, she continues the company’s rich lineage, from Adolph Bolm and the Christensen brothers to Michael Smuin and Helgi Tomasson, while expanding its future horizons.

San Francisco Ballet in Scarlett's "Frankenstein" - Photo by Lindsey Rallo.

San Francisco Ballet in Scarlett’s “Frankenstein” – Photo by Lindsey Rallo.

This gothic tale in three acts, authored by Mary Shelley and published in 1818, unfolds as a ballet with exquisite sensitivity and emotional fire. The company’s technical precision is matched only by its emotional depth, lyricism, and theatrical power. The genius of the late young Liam Scarlett’s narrative vision and intricate movement vocabulary balances human frailty with horror. In making this live, he creates a world that is both exquisite and profoundly unsettling—a world whose warning reverberates through our own time.

Scenic and costume designs by the brilliant John Macfarlane capture the eerie pre-Victorian world with breathtaking precision. His use of satins, lace, brocade, and wool evokes the early 1800s with lush authenticity, while David Finn’s lighting carves the space into glimpses of mystery—laboratories, ballrooms, and shadowy corridors that hint at unseen terrors.

San Francisco Ballet in Scarlett's "Frankenstein" - Photo by Lindsey Thomas.

San Francisco Ballet in Scarlett’s “Frankenstein” – Photo by Lindsey Thomas.

 

Lowell Liebermann’s sweeping symphonic score is itself a masterpiece of atmosphere and tension. Its lyrical beauty recalls Chopin and Mendelssohn, while its darker undercurrents echo Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Under the passionate direction of Martin West, SFB’s conductor of more than twenty years, and performed by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the music surged with cinematic intensity and emotional precision.

San Franciso Ballet - Esteban Hernandez in Scarlett's "Frankenstein" - Photo by Lindsey Rallo.

San Franciso Ballet – Esteban Hernandez in Scarlett’s “Frankenstein” – Photo by Lindsey Rallo.

One of the evening’s most powerful performances came from Cavan Conley, recently named Principal with the company, who portrayed The Creature. His transformation, from trembling innocence to tortured self-awareness, grew from heartbreakingly human to terrifyingly broken. As his body discovered sensation, desire, and pain, Conley as the Creature revealed the tragic poetry within Shelley’s imagination. His honesty and vulnerability evoked the innocence of birth and nascent love, growing into venomous rejection and eventual horror. While Jasmine Jimison’s innocence and radiance as the sympathetic Elizabeth Lavenza, Victor Frankenstein’s beloved fiancée, somehow echoed the Creature’s naivete.   Her effortless technical brilliance was evident in her lyricism, line, and emotional depth.  She illuminated each scene, evoking compassion and connection in every nuanced move.

The complex relationship between Victor Frankenstein portrayed by Esteban Hernández and his paramour, Elizabeth, found voice in an exquisite pas de deux that physically reflected their fragile emotional terrain. Their off-kilter lifts and breathtaking falls, their rise and collapse into one another’s arms, conveyed a love both beautiful and doomed.   However, the intricate off-balance partnering of Scarlett’s highly inventive choreography in the first-act duet appeared, at moments, to challenge Hernandez, drawing attention away from the scene’s soaring euphoria.

Hernández’ Victor offered a technically solid but emotionally narrow and vapid portrayal. The character’s Faustian desire to resurrect his dead mother leads him into a chilling labyrinth of powerful experimentations; he, in his mad pursuit, descend through lightening and fire in the eerie, cathedral-like laboratory, with effects leading the way. Yet, his characterization, while skillful, became muted, missing the dynamic shading that needed to deepen the tragedy of his ambition as the character.

San Francisco Ballet - Jasmine Jimison and Cavan Conley in Scarlett's "Frankenstein" - Photo by Lindsey Rallo.

San Francisco Ballet – Jasmine Jimison and Cavan Conley in Scarlett’s “Frankenstein” – Photo by Lindsey Rallo.

The SFB’s corps de ballet—renowned for their excellence and refined technique—were truly outstanding. Their articulate, subtle, and precise ensemble work was enviable. The men excelled in their masculine strength, pirouettes and tour en l’air, while the powerful presence and technical élon of the women embodied captivating perfection. The final act beautifully unfurled in a swirl of taffeta of purples, blacks, and mauves, was a true feast for the eye and spirit.

Although, as a whole, the company was unsurpassable, there were some unforgettable moments of the evening that came from the supporting cast. Joanna Berman, an SFB icon of eighteen years, brought commanding dramatic focus to Madame Moritz, the repressed housekeeper. In a moment of anguish and grief, she reflected so physically organic and artful that the pain became real in one singular movement of raw human emotion.  So surprising and devastating it was that it brought the audience to tears as the curtain descended.

San Francisco Ballet - Cavan Conley and Esteban Hernandez in Scarlett's "Frankenstein" - Photo by Lindsey Rallo.

San Francisco Ballet – Cavan Conley and Esteban Hernandez in Scarlett’s “Frankenstein” – Photo by Lindsey Rallo.

Elizabeth Powell’s, Madame Moritz’ daughter, Justine Moritz, was a touching victim, in her portrayal of the nanny of Victor’s younger brother; while Dylan Pierzina’s, Henry Clerval, Victor’s friend radiated warmth and youthful joy, often outshining his brooding friend.

Victor’s younger brother, William Frankenstein—portrayed tenderly by Bode Jay Nanola—was pure and endearing. Blindfolded, he played hide-and-seek with the Creature in a scene both charming and chilling, a moment of innocence on the brink of devastation.

San Francisco Ballet in Scarlett's "Frankenstein" - Photo by Lindsay Thomas.

San Francisco Ballet in Scarlett’s “Frankenstein” – Photo by Lindsay Thomas.

This haunting tale—born from a rainy summer challenge among poets in Geneva—remains timeless in its warning and wonder. Scarlett, Rojo, and San Francisco Ballet, in partnership with The Royal Ballet, have revived this classic with haunting brilliance, leaving the audience in stunned silence before a thunderous standing ovation. Shelley’s meditation on creation, alienation, and moral consequence felt as immediate as ever a mirror to our age of invention and isolation.  So, after a thirty-six-year absence (since 1989), this gift marks a triumphant return of San Francisco Ballet and the now named Segerstrom to Southern California. One can only hope it will not be long before they return to share their artistry with us.

Corps de Ballet: Kamryn Baldwin, Rebecca Blenkinsop, Jihyun Choi, Thamires Chuvas, Benjamin Davidoff, Emmitt Friedman, Jacey Gailliard, Gabriela Gonzalez, Jakub Groot, Logi Gudmundsson, Lleyton Ho, Andris Kundzins, Katharine Lee, Lucas Lopez, Elizabeth Mateer, Carmela Mayo, Nicole Moyer, Rimi Nakano,  Davide Occhipinti, Pemberley Ann Olson, João Percilio da Silva, Simone Pompignoli, Leili Rackow, Logan Shaw, Tyla Steinbach, Jamie Adele Stephens, Asher Stephenson, Archie Sullivan, Alexis Francisco Valdes, Juliana Wilder, Juliette Windey, Seojeong Yun, Adrian Zeisel, Evelyn Coston, Kotaro Kimura, Sakura Kimura, Judah Gaglio

To learn more about the San Francisco Ballet, please visit their website.

For more information about the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, please visit their website.


Written by Joanne DiVito for LA Dance Chronicle.

Featured image: San Francisco Ballet – Cavan Conley in Scarlett’s “Frankenstein” – Photo by Lindsey Rallo.