As I sat in the cinema with the lovely Melissa Kennedy sitting next to me, I didn’t know what to think of the play I was about to see. A play at the cinema! And I’m not talking about when they take Shakespeare and make it into one of those films that school kids think it is ok to watch instead of reading the play! No this was beamed though the air waves from the great city of London and onto cinema screens not just over the UK, but also the world! Today’s performance was one which seemed to be doing well in the National Theatre, starring a fine actor who had managed to impress me and complete wow Mel with his performance as a modern day Sherlock Holmes, and a director who always seems to do a great job with what ever material he is given. I’m talking about the latest version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and directed by Danny Boyle. The play is performed in a very interesting way, Cumberbatch along with his co-star Jonny Lee Miller take in turns to play Frankenstein and his Monster. When I found out that we would be seeing Cumberbatch as the monster I was a bit disappointed as I did not think we would see him at his best. Silly me I was thinking the monster would be a wooden character pushed to one side allowing the spot light for the role of Frankenstein, how wrong I was! Danny Boyle (and of course the writer Nick Dear) had decided to bring the monster into the lime light and make the story more about him, having the play start with the birth of Frankenstein’s creation and not bringing Victor Frankenstein in till about 40 minutes into the play. A short documentary at the beginning of the live broadcast, showed an interview with Cumberbatch discussing his research into the role of the Monster, saying that he studied people with learning disabilities and people who have had to re-teach their bodies and minds after trauma and this was very much visible from the moment he appears on stage. The Monster’s birth scene is like watching evolution in action, seeing him flip around the stage like a new born fish to a baby fawn finding its legs. Cumberbatch is brilliant at pulling this off, never making you what to laugh at the Monsters clumsy ways but feeling sorry for him and wanting him to survive in this harsh world.
The creature that Frankenstein creates really made me think. Why do I not feel angry at the Monster when he burns down the cottage of the man who helped him learn to speak, as the old man and this family are still inside? Is it the fact that after everything the Monster does for the family, doing the farm work allowing them not to go hungry, they see him as a devil and beat him and tell him to get away! And of course you should feel sorry for him as he has not done anything wrong, and in away the creature is still a child learning the difference between right and wrong. Maybe it was just the way Cumberbatch portrayed the beast!
After seeing the play it left me wanting more and to know how close the story was to Mary Shelley’s original text. I do not own the novel, but I do own a copy of the 1994 feature film directed and starring Kenneth Branagh. I know this is nowhere as good as reading the book but at the time I wanted to fulfil my fix and that was as near as I could get to the novel. The film helped to answer some of the questions that the play left out, like how Frankenstein came round to creating the monster. It was an interesting film and managed to keep me entertained throughout the 2 hour running time. The acting was a bit thin in places and maybe a little hammy. It also felt a bit weird that a heavy hitting actor like De Niro was given the role of the Monster which felt like a second thought more then a main character. But maybe that was because I was treated so much with Cumberbatch’s take on the creation, that De Niro felt a little flat. This is being a little picky, but he could have tried to lose the American accent and blended in with the other English cast (Ok, I know it is not an English story but at least they all sounded the same). Do not get me wrong I really enjoyed the film and Helena Bonham Carter, Ian Holms, John Cleese and Richard Briers all made it that bit more enjoyable. Plus the Monster was portrayed as that, a Monster! He was made out as a murdering creation that was built from parts of murders and lowlifes and even though he had the brain of a genius doctor he seemed to just use it to be sneaky and plotting!
So I guess I have 2 things to achieve now, 1) read the book (or in my lazy case, listen to the unabridged audio book) and 2) watch some more of the many Frankenstein films that haunt the history of cinema. You never know I may follow up this Blog with further thoughts on the Legend that is “Frankenstein”.
