"It's taken courage for me to face you, golem. After all these years, you are almost my ruin."

Welcome to the world of Clive Barker, where a patchwork creature has taken over a South American country, a president is assassinated, a fan dancing & palm reading ghost is the narrator, a cardinal gets his hands skewered, where loyalist double cross their leader, creatures grunt and blood reigns. And that's just the First Act of an epic play called Frankenstein In Love. For the last four weekends, I have played the villainous Dr. Frankenstein at The Vortex Theatre in Albuquerque.

"Please don't fret yourself. I really have only the best of intentions toward you. To watch you grow, Veronique. To help you accommodate the agonies of change."

The tale follows El Coco's (a.k.a. the boogeyman, a.k.a golem, a.k.a Cesar Guerrero) as he searches for his maker and father, Dr. F. The good doctor makes his first appearance in the bizarre and amusing tale at the very end of the first act to warn everyone the play is going to take a turn toward evil. While El Coco has a passion to kill his father, Dr. F is more interested in another creature of his, Veronique Flecker. He has altered her state to bare deathless creatures and is quite intent on marrying and breeding with his latest abomination. The two creatures fall for each other, but that does not stop Dr. Frankenstein from burning up El Coco and kidnapping Veronique. The love triangle begins, and we go on to Act II...

"If a man has one head, I can give him two. Guilt I can do nothing about. The wounds of the mind must be bred out, generation by generation. People must learn not to hate themselves so much. Like you. You hate yourself, don't you? Oh, I watch you Veronique, with your mirror and your tears. I watch you naked as you look at the changes in your substance, and the horror with which you greet each new transformation. But you must learn not to fear change. And if not you, your children."

Not only does Dr. F amp up the creepy factor of the play, but the director Miguel Martinez told me the inspiration of the character was none other than Josef Mengele, the ring leader doctor who ran Auschwitz during WWII. Mengele actually escaped to South America after the war and was never caught by the Nazi hunters. To create the character properly, I cut and parted my hair stiffly on the right side. The make up crew whitened my face and darkened my beard and eyebrows, and my stern looks were called upon repeatedly. The Nazi doctor was born.

"We have a legend of the golem, the unfinished thing. Adam was God's golem, until he was given a soul. There are stories of Rabbis who made such creatures out of dust and set them to work. In Auschwitz, I conceived of such a thing to do work for me, to change the world. You can see how obedient he was, my golem. So I must work a different way, through you. Marry me. Well?"

In my Shakespearean type speech to Veronique, I rattle of the defense of my ways and profess my evil love for her. While the lines may seem daunting, there was an added challenge of saying everything with a German accent. That means all W's became V's like work becoming verk. TH's became Z's or D's or S's, meaning " 'for you, for them, for the future...' was "for yoo, for dem, for de future.' Then, there were vowel substitutions and special stresses, but I am proud to say I was up to the Teutonic task. My German chops are now good enough to audition for Schindler's List II.

"I don't mind taking de church to bed vith me. A lot of men, more Godless dan me, do it at de end. Just to play safe, to be sure. God forgives dem everysing, doesn't he, like de perfect fodder. He rocks de contrite to sleep vith equal luf, veather de sin vas murder or bedvetting. I vill be forgiven. Vut haf I done but serve life?"

Even with the German accent, the Mengele background, and knowing all my lines, there was the imperative task of actually acting. With a play full of wacky creatures, a super gay tailor, twitchy mortician, a sexy and sympathetic Veronique, and determined El Coco looking for laughs and acceptance, I was the thing most unlike the others. The villain stands alone. While others feared El Coco (played by a renown local slam poet), I had a trump card on my creature, and during the final scene of the three hour long play, we engage in our power struggle.

"Too many of my predecessors died at the hands of their creations. I don't intend to suffer the safe fate. You are incapable of harming me. Your flesh opens like a flower if it's laid on me in anger. It's the first law I taught you, son. It's built into your fabric, at your core. To touch me in anger is to bleed. The perfect psychosomia for an erring child."

I let my controlled stern behavior unravel as my creature has struggled his way back to life to kill me, only to discover I have mind control over him. His passion forces him to fight until he finally breaks down.

"You are my beauty. My body perfected. All I was drained off into you. When you went, my health went with you, leaving me a moral morbidity I smell in my sleep. The acts I committed for the love of you. Acts I can never forget. I crawled into the bellies of the dead to fish out a little life... I have an appetite for it now. An unrelenting lust for death. To see its procedures, it's wit, that certain smile. Oh, what shall we do? Look at me child, what shall we do? Dead? No, damn you. No, no. Never, never. Suicide! Suicide! The world is full of suicide. You wanted to kill me, and you killed yourself. Imbecile!"

Oh yeah, to say those lines one thing, but to absolutely scare the shit out of an entire audience while you do it is something you cannot properly describe. Live theatre is truly for only those who witness it, and I know I did it right because admirers congratulated much of the cast and were always reticent to say anything to me at all. Ah, to be the villain.

"I'm not a cold man, Veronique...I have a heart...capable of feeling...Yes, yes...I love you!... That hurts me...your hands...what are you doing...Veronique... please...ah!"

Don't worry, everybody. I get my comeuppance. While I was so careful to protect myself against El Coco, I did not do the same for Veronique, and she rips out my heart. Creatures who died throughout the play converge on me and gnaw on my body as she takes out my meaty flesh. They drag me off stage in a most disrespectful manner. It's my most gruesome death to date.

So that's my tale of Dr. F. In many ways, it's the best acting I've ever done, and I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity. Tonight, Frankenstein In Love will have its final of thirteen performances. Obviously with community theatre, some things were done better than others, but when we were on, the show was intense, draining, and even inspiring. Last night, we received a standing ovation from a full house at The Vortex Theatre. That's the best anyone should ask for from any play anywhere in the world.

I will return to the world again and put my German Nazi mentality away, but as with any quality role I perform, I know that there will always be some Dr. Frankenstein in me.

Chris Jungle is really good guy at heart.