You know the story of "Frankenstein." But the story of its author is just as haunting.

 The touring show "Frankenstein Lives!" fuses the lives of the writer and her creature into a compelling stage play. The Rose of Athens Theatre will present a one-night-only performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Swanson Center Blackbox Theater at Piedmont College in Demorest.

Written by Virginia playwright Douglas Jones, "Frankenstein Lives!" was first produced for Virginia Public Television. The two-person show examines the life of Mary Shelley, who at 18 wrote a story that hasn't been out of print since it was first published in 1818 and has become an icon in popular culture and entertainment.

Shelley was surrounded by scientific breakthroughs in electricity, chemistry and magnetism, and thus imagined a creature pieced together from dead bodies and brought back to life, only to be shunned by its creator. "Frankenstein Lives!" chronicles her life leading up to the book, the literary world that surrounded her, the contest proposed by Lord Byron that inspired her to write "Frankenstein" and the startling resonances between her life and her literary creation.

In this story within a story, Jeremy Miller portrays Shelley's husband, poet Percy Shelley, and the equally obsessed Victor Frankenstein, creator of the Creature. Danielle Bailey Miller portrays the young tormented Mary Shelley and the equally tormented Creature. The husband and wife actors are Piedmont graduates.

The production by the Rose of Athens Theatre is directed by Lisa Cesnik Ferguson. The show is suitable for all audiences.