Wow
So, Frankenstein was amazing. Benedict was amazing. It's a gripping, intense play and I'm still thinking about it - actually had trouble dropping off to sleep last night, and when I did, I dreamed about it.
The theater was packed. I was seriously thinking there might just be the five of us there (we met sif_aka_joanna and her daughter in the lobby), but I was wrong. And all sorts of people - younger, older, men, women, couples, etc. So not just fangirls - although from the conversation I could overhear behind me, definitely fanboys as well.
They showed some brief clips on the making of the play before it started, which really makes me hope that they're going to put out a DVD. Clips from the rehearsals, Nick Dear and Danny Boyle talking about why they think Frankenstein still connects with modern audiences, some stuff about Mary Shelley, and Benedict and Jonny talking about how they prepared for the physical part of being The Creature, studying children, newborn mammals, people recovering from serious injury, and things like that.
Benedict was just phenomenal as The Creature. Not just for the first twenty minutes, which was incredible as a study in physical acting - I can totally understand why he ends up with bruises and scrapes every time - but his entire performance. Even once The Creature learns to speak, his mannerisms, his behavior, the way Benedict uses his physical motions to underscore his emotions... he has these moments of beautiful, amazing grace and then moments of clumsiness and despair. And despite learning how to talk and walk and be like a man, he never quite loses his awkwardness, his unusual physicality, which reinforces the impression of The Creature as other, not human. It's utterly brilliant, amazing, fantastic. I wish I had better adjectives for it.
Jonny was great as Victor as well, and the scenes between the two of them are sizzling with intensity and emotion. It's such a heart-wrenching story, even more so the way Dear and Boyle have chosen to tell it, from the point of view of The Creature. And for me, at least, knowing the story, with this great sense of impending doom throughout - you know things can't end well. And the final scene, with Victor and The Creature in the frozen wastes... gave me shivers down my back.
I'm dying to see Benedict as Victor, now. And I think DC Shakespeare Theater is showing the first version again just before the second, and - insane though I know it sounds - I really want to see it again. It may be an Easter weekend in DC...
The theater was packed. I was seriously thinking there might just be the five of us there (we met sif_aka_joanna and her daughter in the lobby), but I was wrong. And all sorts of people - younger, older, men, women, couples, etc. So not just fangirls - although from the conversation I could overhear behind me, definitely fanboys as well.
They showed some brief clips on the making of the play before it started, which really makes me hope that they're going to put out a DVD. Clips from the rehearsals, Nick Dear and Danny Boyle talking about why they think Frankenstein still connects with modern audiences, some stuff about Mary Shelley, and Benedict and Jonny talking about how they prepared for the physical part of being The Creature, studying children, newborn mammals, people recovering from serious injury, and things like that.
Benedict was just phenomenal as The Creature. Not just for the first twenty minutes, which was incredible as a study in physical acting - I can totally understand why he ends up with bruises and scrapes every time - but his entire performance. Even once The Creature learns to speak, his mannerisms, his behavior, the way Benedict uses his physical motions to underscore his emotions... he has these moments of beautiful, amazing grace and then moments of clumsiness and despair. And despite learning how to talk and walk and be like a man, he never quite loses his awkwardness, his unusual physicality, which reinforces the impression of The Creature as other, not human. It's utterly brilliant, amazing, fantastic. I wish I had better adjectives for it.
Jonny was great as Victor as well, and the scenes between the two of them are sizzling with intensity and emotion. It's such a heart-wrenching story, even more so the way Dear and Boyle have chosen to tell it, from the point of view of The Creature. And for me, at least, knowing the story, with this great sense of impending doom throughout - you know things can't end well. And the final scene, with Victor and The Creature in the frozen wastes... gave me shivers down my back.
I'm dying to see Benedict as Victor, now. And I think DC Shakespeare Theater is showing the first version again just before the second, and - insane though I know it sounds - I really want to see it again. It may be an Easter weekend in DC...