you were made for me
This is a National Theatre Frankenstein post, by request!
Benedict Cumberbatch's Creature
Cumberbatch's Creature was the first one I saw, and I loved him from early on. You should probably bear in mind that I didn't know the story of Frankenstein at this point, but his development was wonderfully portrayed, from learning to walk to learning to read -- BC said in the pre-show featurette that he'd watched footage of stroke victims' recoveries as research, and there was definitely a very appropriate sense of disability about his performance, which, despite JLM's Creature's lingering limp, I didn't feel so strongly from him. With JLM, it felt as though what separated him most definitively from society was his intense, obsessive personality; with Cumberbatch, the idea of disability seemed to come into play more, so that I longed for people to overcome their initial shock and accept his Creature, despite knowing that their ableist prejudices would never allow it. His chemistry with almost everyone he came across was off the charts, which I think is a Cumberbatch Thing, and that probably reinforced my wish for society to accept him.
As for when he finally went to the bad -- with Cumberbatch it seemed to come from a more intellectual place than with JLM, whose obsession seemed fuelled by the darkness that ran right through his performance. Cumberbatch's Creature, I think, met the grim fate of tying his life and death to Frankenstein's with a kind of acceptance that this is how things must be, like a tragic hero who sees the only way out of his story. Yes -- I found him a Hamlet-esque Creature.
Jonny Lee Miller's Creature
From early on, I could see the stirrings of menace in JLM's Creature. Maybe it was just because, having seen the first version, I now knew the story -- that he and Frankenstein would end up mortal enemies -- but that was part of the experience of this production, so it's worth taking into account. Even as this Creature was babylike (in the featurette, JLM said there was a lot of his 2-year-old in this Creature, and you could definitely see that), he was also manly; his voice was gruff and he growled like a man, getting frustrated at his inability to walk; he seemed quicker to anger and the anger ran deep. I could see the rapist in the Creature from early on, the murderous rage. It felt like watching a different character.
But what I liked most about JLM's Creature was the way he gave off the impression that he could have been perfectly good, he could have been happy, he could have found a good life -- if only everything had been exactly as he wanted it. There were echoes of the abuser in him: I'll be the best friend/family member/lover ever, just as long as you do whatever I say; and if you don't, there'll be hell to pay.
Jonny Lee Miller's Victor Frankenstein
I saw this Victor first, and was actually surprised how small his role seemed, compared to the Creature -- I expected the play to balance the two characters more or less equally, but there was definitely an emphasis on the Creature and his point of view, particularly at the beginning of the play. Having said that, JLM gave a good performance, but I didn't really feel that I got deep into Victor's psyche -- we seemed to watch him go from bad to worse from the outside, rather than being able to see into his character's interiority and feel his breakdown with him. Maybe I got a lot more from Cumberbatch's Victor because I was watching the play for the second time, but like I said before, that's the nature of this production.
Benedict Cumberbatch's Victor Frankenstein
It was interesting watching Cumberbatch play Victor, given that, in some ways, the reclusive obsessive workaholic Frankenstein is pretty similar to Steven Moffat's Sherlock Holmes. However, though I'd argue that dark undercurrents are stirring in interesting ways within Sherlock's Holmes, Victor's darkness is nearer the surface, even if both characters share an amoral devotion to their work at all costs. None of Sherlock's glints of telling humanity here ("I don't have friends -- I just have one"). And when he went to the bad, it was with a kind of vicious spite, once memorably roaring out "Little people and their little lives!" -- he knows well that his destiny, though bleak, will be larger and more epic.
Like his Creature, Cumberbatch's Victor has fucktons of chemistry with pretty much everybody, which makes his performance come alive in interesting ways. I think I preferred JLM's Victor in the scenes with his father, and with Elizabeth, his fiancée, where his slightly more muted style felt appropriate, but reading Victor's emotions in Cumberbatch's face meant that some of the scenes with the Creature were particularly affecting this way round. Maybe it's just the way he seems to imbue every line he speaks with Great Deep Meaning, but his performance cracked the shell of Victor and let just enough light in to make things interesting.
Everything/Everyone Else
SO GREAT. The staging was incredible, especially the contrast of the first two scenes -- Frankenstein's birth from a womb-like frame versus the entry on a steam locomotive of a chorus representing the industrial town, drinking, shouting, clad in greasy work-clothes and billowing smoke out before them. The final scene, where Victor and the Creature disappear upstage towards the North pole, becoming invisible in blinding white light, was also really effective and memorable. But, really, all of it was effective and memorable, from the shadowy croft in the Orkneys where Frankenstein travelled to create a second Creature to the sparse white architecture of the Frankensteins' house, where Elizabeth longed for excitement and Victor's demons didn't fit in, and the scene which took place on neat white boardwalks beside Lake Geneva was another striking favourite.
My favourite supporting cast members were Karl Johnson as the blind man who teaches the Creature to read -- he played so marvellously off Cumberbatch's Creature, in particular -- and Naomie Harris's Elizabeth, who was just wonderful in most ways really. But everyone was great, especially the young couple who you had to fall in love with even as you saw the tragedy that awaited when they met the Creature.
So those are most of my feelings, though I've probably forgotten something really awesome and important. I kind of want there to be a DVD, because I'd really like to see the Cumberbatch!Creature version again now that I know the story, and honestly, close comparisons of those lead performances could only end in more glorious theatre feelings for everyone involved. Also, now I shall have to read the book.
PS: I'm 99% sure the tense usage in this post is absolutely bloody awful. Sorry about that.
Benedict Cumberbatch's Creature
Cumberbatch's Creature was the first one I saw, and I loved him from early on. You should probably bear in mind that I didn't know the story of Frankenstein at this point, but his development was wonderfully portrayed, from learning to walk to learning to read -- BC said in the pre-show featurette that he'd watched footage of stroke victims' recoveries as research, and there was definitely a very appropriate sense of disability about his performance, which, despite JLM's Creature's lingering limp, I didn't feel so strongly from him. With JLM, it felt as though what separated him most definitively from society was his intense, obsessive personality; with Cumberbatch, the idea of disability seemed to come into play more, so that I longed for people to overcome their initial shock and accept his Creature, despite knowing that their ableist prejudices would never allow it. His chemistry with almost everyone he came across was off the charts, which I think is a Cumberbatch Thing, and that probably reinforced my wish for society to accept him.
As for when he finally went to the bad -- with Cumberbatch it seemed to come from a more intellectual place than with JLM, whose obsession seemed fuelled by the darkness that ran right through his performance. Cumberbatch's Creature, I think, met the grim fate of tying his life and death to Frankenstein's with a kind of acceptance that this is how things must be, like a tragic hero who sees the only way out of his story. Yes -- I found him a Hamlet-esque Creature.
Jonny Lee Miller's Creature
From early on, I could see the stirrings of menace in JLM's Creature. Maybe it was just because, having seen the first version, I now knew the story -- that he and Frankenstein would end up mortal enemies -- but that was part of the experience of this production, so it's worth taking into account. Even as this Creature was babylike (in the featurette, JLM said there was a lot of his 2-year-old in this Creature, and you could definitely see that), he was also manly; his voice was gruff and he growled like a man, getting frustrated at his inability to walk; he seemed quicker to anger and the anger ran deep. I could see the rapist in the Creature from early on, the murderous rage. It felt like watching a different character.
But what I liked most about JLM's Creature was the way he gave off the impression that he could have been perfectly good, he could have been happy, he could have found a good life -- if only everything had been exactly as he wanted it. There were echoes of the abuser in him: I'll be the best friend/family member/lover ever, just as long as you do whatever I say; and if you don't, there'll be hell to pay.
Jonny Lee Miller's Victor Frankenstein
I saw this Victor first, and was actually surprised how small his role seemed, compared to the Creature -- I expected the play to balance the two characters more or less equally, but there was definitely an emphasis on the Creature and his point of view, particularly at the beginning of the play. Having said that, JLM gave a good performance, but I didn't really feel that I got deep into Victor's psyche -- we seemed to watch him go from bad to worse from the outside, rather than being able to see into his character's interiority and feel his breakdown with him. Maybe I got a lot more from Cumberbatch's Victor because I was watching the play for the second time, but like I said before, that's the nature of this production.
Benedict Cumberbatch's Victor Frankenstein
It was interesting watching Cumberbatch play Victor, given that, in some ways, the reclusive obsessive workaholic Frankenstein is pretty similar to Steven Moffat's Sherlock Holmes. However, though I'd argue that dark undercurrents are stirring in interesting ways within Sherlock's Holmes, Victor's darkness is nearer the surface, even if both characters share an amoral devotion to their work at all costs. None of Sherlock's glints of telling humanity here ("I don't have friends -- I just have one"). And when he went to the bad, it was with a kind of vicious spite, once memorably roaring out "Little people and their little lives!" -- he knows well that his destiny, though bleak, will be larger and more epic.
Like his Creature, Cumberbatch's Victor has fucktons of chemistry with pretty much everybody, which makes his performance come alive in interesting ways. I think I preferred JLM's Victor in the scenes with his father, and with Elizabeth, his fiancée, where his slightly more muted style felt appropriate, but reading Victor's emotions in Cumberbatch's face meant that some of the scenes with the Creature were particularly affecting this way round. Maybe it's just the way he seems to imbue every line he speaks with Great Deep Meaning, but his performance cracked the shell of Victor and let just enough light in to make things interesting.
Everything/Everyone Else
SO GREAT. The staging was incredible, especially the contrast of the first two scenes -- Frankenstein's birth from a womb-like frame versus the entry on a steam locomotive of a chorus representing the industrial town, drinking, shouting, clad in greasy work-clothes and billowing smoke out before them. The final scene, where Victor and the Creature disappear upstage towards the North pole, becoming invisible in blinding white light, was also really effective and memorable. But, really, all of it was effective and memorable, from the shadowy croft in the Orkneys where Frankenstein travelled to create a second Creature to the sparse white architecture of the Frankensteins' house, where Elizabeth longed for excitement and Victor's demons didn't fit in, and the scene which took place on neat white boardwalks beside Lake Geneva was another striking favourite.
My favourite supporting cast members were Karl Johnson as the blind man who teaches the Creature to read -- he played so marvellously off Cumberbatch's Creature, in particular -- and Naomie Harris's Elizabeth, who was just wonderful in most ways really. But everyone was great, especially the young couple who you had to fall in love with even as you saw the tragedy that awaited when they met the Creature.
So those are most of my feelings, though I've probably forgotten something really awesome and important. I kind of want there to be a DVD, because I'd really like to see the Cumberbatch!Creature version again now that I know the story, and honestly, close comparisons of those lead performances could only end in more glorious theatre feelings for everyone involved. Also, now I shall have to read the book.
PS: I'm 99% sure the tense usage in this post is absolutely bloody awful. Sorry about that.