Frankenstein
Went to see Frankenstein at the National Theatre yesterday and it was everything I'd hoped it would be. The performance we saw had Johnny Lee Miller as the Creature and Benedict as Frankenstein, and I'm glad it was this way round (although if Benedict had been the Creature he'd have been onstage more and naked for ten minutes, but you can't win them all *g*).
I'll try not to slip into 'wanky Theatre Studies student' mode while I'm writing this, but forgive me if I over-analyse the play, although I've not done it since A Level it's kind of an ingrained reaction when I see a play!
I've long admired the Olivier Theatre as a space, the technical possibilities it allows are like no other space and Danny Boyle has fully utilised them for this production. Sets, lighting, sound all came together perfectly to set the audience on edge from the moment they entered the theatre and maintain it to the play's end (there was no intermission, a wise decision).
A bell hangs from the theatre ceiling which was rung by a cast member as we were filing in and it made everyone jumpy and nervous before the lights had gone down. The opening is the Creature's 'birth', which JLM played so well - not an easy thing to crawl around a stage, naked and alone for ten minutes without saying a word and still have the audience's full attention.
The lighting features a gantry suspended above the stage that has 10,000 individual light bulbs hanging from it (a nightmare for whoever has to change them, I bet!!) which was a stroke of genius. During the creature's birth it was used to show the flashes of lightning that gave him life and then the auditorium went from dim light to blinding - making the audience squint and blink just like the creature. It was used all the way through the play, almost like another character, a novel and excellent way to create lighting effects.
Johnny was truly astounding as the Creature. He evokes the childlike innocence of a being on his first day on Earth so well that I felt a great swell of joy too and yet he was equally able to be vicious and cruelly taunting in a way that was also utterly believable.
Benedict was equally good as Victor, but this seemed less of a stretch for him - a nigh-on autistic genius is something we've all seen him play in Sherlock after all. I would have loved to have seen his Creature, so I really hope that the play either tours with them both or they release it on DVD (after all it needed to be filmed for the cinema broadcast).
After the play, me and sis enjoyed The Experiment - a green cocktail with dry ice to create the classic mad scientist drink!! (I have a pic which I will try to upload from my phone if poss).
Also stopped in at the BFI and enjoyed their new Mediatheque, which is a room where anyone can walk in and spend two hours watching a selection of films from the National Archive for free. Got to watch a few things banned from TV (like, believe it or not, an episode of the Clangers!) and a rare Spike Milligan/Peter Sellers film I've never had opportunity to see before: The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film.
I'll try not to slip into 'wanky Theatre Studies student' mode while I'm writing this, but forgive me if I over-analyse the play, although I've not done it since A Level it's kind of an ingrained reaction when I see a play!
I've long admired the Olivier Theatre as a space, the technical possibilities it allows are like no other space and Danny Boyle has fully utilised them for this production. Sets, lighting, sound all came together perfectly to set the audience on edge from the moment they entered the theatre and maintain it to the play's end (there was no intermission, a wise decision).
A bell hangs from the theatre ceiling which was rung by a cast member as we were filing in and it made everyone jumpy and nervous before the lights had gone down. The opening is the Creature's 'birth', which JLM played so well - not an easy thing to crawl around a stage, naked and alone for ten minutes without saying a word and still have the audience's full attention.
The lighting features a gantry suspended above the stage that has 10,000 individual light bulbs hanging from it (a nightmare for whoever has to change them, I bet!!) which was a stroke of genius. During the creature's birth it was used to show the flashes of lightning that gave him life and then the auditorium went from dim light to blinding - making the audience squint and blink just like the creature. It was used all the way through the play, almost like another character, a novel and excellent way to create lighting effects.
Johnny was truly astounding as the Creature. He evokes the childlike innocence of a being on his first day on Earth so well that I felt a great swell of joy too and yet he was equally able to be vicious and cruelly taunting in a way that was also utterly believable.
Benedict was equally good as Victor, but this seemed less of a stretch for him - a nigh-on autistic genius is something we've all seen him play in Sherlock after all. I would have loved to have seen his Creature, so I really hope that the play either tours with them both or they release it on DVD (after all it needed to be filmed for the cinema broadcast).
After the play, me and sis enjoyed The Experiment - a green cocktail with dry ice to create the classic mad scientist drink!! (I have a pic which I will try to upload from my phone if poss).
Also stopped in at the BFI and enjoyed their new Mediatheque, which is a room where anyone can walk in and spend two hours watching a selection of films from the National Archive for free. Got to watch a few things banned from TV (like, believe it or not, an episode of the Clangers!) and a rare Spike Milligan/Peter Sellers film I've never had opportunity to see before: The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film.