Mary Shelley's best known novel, "Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus," is as misunderstood as the oft-caricatured monster it portrays, says Adam Lincoln.

"In the book, the Creature is not green. And his name is not Frankenstein. Not a lot of people know that."

Lincoln knows because he's playing the title role in Alaska Theatre of Youth's production of "Frankenstein." That's Victor Frankenstein, the man who makes a monster, as the subtitle says, not the monster itself. Lincoln, a theater student at the University of Alaska Anchorage, says that the play, which opened at Sydney Laurence Theatre on Thursday and continues through next Saturday, is "Much more true to the novel than the movie," the 1931 classic starring Boris Karloff, "or any of the more recent movies. It's more authentic."

And cannily timed for Halloween weekend.

Alaska Theatre of Youth director Christian Heppinstall says that when the company realized they had the theater for the holiday this year, they narrowed down their choices to "Frankenstein" and "Dracula." "We flipped a coin and 'Frankenstein' won."

Heppinstall selected this particular version of the story for its dramatic integrity -- it was commissioned by two of the leading children's theater companies in the world, in Seattle and Minneapolis -- and also for it's cross-generational appeal. More about that in a moment.

Heppinstall has created a unit set that is almost entirely white. That's appropriate, he says, in that the tale opens and ends in the Arctic, another detail with which many "Frankenstein" fans are unfamiliar. Gauzy white sheets cover the elements on the stage to reflect the interior of a mansion or the sails of a ship.

"I love Christo," Heppinstall says, referring to the avant guard artist. "If I had my way I'd wrap everything in cloth."

Just as the set presents a solid visual from start to finish, so the sound design provides a continuous background to the action.

"There's no silence at any point," Heppinstall says. The audio effects provide a background for long, tense segments without dialogue, "Almost an homage to silent movies."

The atmosphere is intended to produce shudders, especially when something really bad is just about to happen.

But the horror lies not just in the violence of the narrative, says Jeremy Gaunt, a West High senior enrolled in Alaska Pacific University's Early Honors program.

The real horror is the doom that the characters bring upon themselves and their inability to find a way out of the chain of disasters.

Gaunt plays the Creature -- Karloff's role in the famous movie, and not in green makeup. (The green tint associated with that "Frankenstein" actually stems from the film that was used; it was processed in green-and-white, not black-and-white, and everyone in the movie is green to one degree or another.)

"I'm trying not to play him as a two-dimensional monster," Gaunt says, "but as a real character."

Not easy when the character doesn't have any lines until late in the show. But it's still a role that develops during the play, Gaunt insists.

"The Creature changes. He feels everything but can't articulate it."

"By the time he can articulate it, it's too late," adds Lincoln. "Shelley has painted a person who grows into 'The Monster' because of what people do to him."

"The beauty of Mary Shelley's world is that she made two protagonists -- Victor Frankenstein and the Creature -- who are each other's antagonist," says Gaunt.

"You also have to sympathize with Victor, who goes from having everything to being on his knees.

"I read the book two years ago. This is a wonderful version."

But dramatic theory aside, the performers know that the thrill of terror is why people young or old will come to a play like this. And they'll get their money's worth, Lincoln promised.

"It's definitely a scary show," he notes. "Creepy. Parts of it make me cringe."