Dannis Boyle’sFrankenstein, the pluriawarded 2011theatrical production, has been aterrific success live on stage at the National Theatre in London and it has after that also been shown worldwide in movie theatres inthe original language. It arrived inRome yesterday (Cinema Lux) and it’ll be on tonight too (Cinema Barberini).I can’t imagine howexciting it must have been for the lucky ones in the audience at the theatre, but it wasamazing and enthralling to watch it on screen last night for me. It was likebeing on stage with the cast, so with a reallyprivileged perspective on the spectacular staging.I’ve always beenastonished by the idea of a 19th century woman, Mary Shelley, writing such a modern, evergreen, disquieting story and at her young age (19 years old). However, Nick Dear, whose adaptation BenedictCumberbatch and Jonny Lee - Miller brought on stage, surprised and moved me withhis brilliant work, which turns the novel into a touching play.The originality of the show is in the idea of a symbiotic relationshipbetween created and creator, the monsterand the scientist who gave him life, unusually rendered with BenedictCumberbatch and Jonny Lee-Miller alternating and taking turns to play thetwo main roles, that of Victor Frankenstein and that of his unnaturally createdmonster.The version I saw last night was withCumberbatch as the creature and Lee-Miller as Victor Frankenstein. UnlinkelyMary Shelley’s novel, the play is monster-centric. In the 1818 book, the story of the uglycreature brought to life through scientific experiments in chemistry andgalvanization is shadowed by the prevailing storyline dedicated to the theme ofthe overreacher - Frankenstein, the Modern Prometheus - and his unhappy fate. The readers are asked to sympathize with him not as much as with his wretched creature, though the latter is seen as an outcast and as the evil product of a selfishand prejudiced society. If in Mary Shelley’s gothic tale we are asked to pity the poor innocentcreature wronged and made wicked by the rejection of other human beings as wellas the ambition-driven genius of Frankenstein , very little pity we are able tofeel for the selfish, unaffectionate, delirious scientist on stage. If readingthe novel we doubt who the villain or who the victim is, in Nick Dear’s play nodoubt is left in front of the unfortunate, moving creature . Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance was heartbreaking at times, from his long opening scene, wordless but soimpressive, to the tragic final confrontation with his master in the NorthPole.
Impossible not to side with the unlucky creaturewhen he painfully acknowledges:
“At firstI knew nothing at all. But I studied the ways of men, and slowly I learnt: howto ruin, how to hate, how to debase, how to humiliate. And at the feet of mymaster, I learnt the highest of human skills, the skill no other creature owns:I finally learnt how to lie.”
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| Jonny Lee-Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch |
This is your universe, Frankenstein! , shouts the now totally aware monster after one of his terrible murders. He had been born good, he only wanted to love and be loved, but hatred, abuse and violence was what Frankenstein and other human beings had taught him. And he had been good and quick at learning. He had better them. A warning to our society who gives birth to tragic, wicked beings it then totally rejects as its own offspring?
Incredible cast and spectacular staging. Awesome and unforgettable. Don't miss it if
you have the chance to see it.
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