Ruth Leon recommends… Frankenstein – National Theatre at Home

Frankenstein – National Theatre at Home

Jonny Lee Miller as the creature
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Benedict Cumberbatch as the creature
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 Only the National Theatre has the scope and resources to produce theatre on the scale of their 2011 production  of Frankenstein adapted by Nick Dear, based on the novel by Mary Shelley, and directed by Danny Boyle. Two major actors – Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller – alternated the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature he created.

For regular theatregoers it was a struggle to decide which of the two versions of the play to attend. Those who could afford it bought tickets and went to both, but most of us had to make a choice. Now the National Theatre has made both available on their National Theatre at Home platform, allowing audiences to see and compare the contrasting performances of these two highly accomplished actors.

Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the increasingly desperate and vengeful Creature determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.

An epic production acted out on the enormous Olivier stage, this Frankenstein in both versions is a good argument for the existence of the National Theatre. 

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