Back when I was still hopelessly obsessed with Benedict Cumberbatch aka Sherlock in BBC Sherlock, I found out that he had starred in a highly acclaimed play called Frankenstein opposite Jonny Lee Miller aka Sherlock in Elementary.
I know. 2 Sherlocks in one play, how interesting!
And to add to the fun, they swap roles every other night, with each one of them playing creator and creature alternately. This dual role made them both win the Olivier Award and London Evening Standard Award for Best Actor for their respective performances. I badly wanted to watch the play live but as London is so far away, I wasn’t able to, obviously.
But then something wonderful happened. National Theatre Live filmed their plays so they could be broadcasted all over the world.
This month, Frankenstein made its way to Singapore, so I grabbed the chance to watch it in Esplanade Theatre Studio with fellow Sherlockians Nantoy and Monica.
We had found out about it rather late, so all the tickets with Benedict as creature were already sold out, which is too bad, because the creature is the star of the show and I would have liked to seen Ben act that part. But seeing Jonny as creature made me realize what a great actor he was too.
Anyway, here is the synopsis from Sistic:
Frankenstein enjoyed a sell-out run at the National Theatre, and went on to win awards including the 2012 Olivier Award for Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller.
Oscar-winner Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) directs a sensational production with Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek: Into Darkness, BBC’s Sherlock) and Jonny Lee Miller (Trainspotting, CBS’s Elementary) alternating roles as Victor Frankenstein and his creation.
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 friendless Creature, increasingly desperate and vengeful, determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.
Urgent concerns of scientific responsibility, parental neglect, cognitive development and the nature of good and evil are embedded within this thrilling and deeply disturbing classic gothic tale.
It was an amazing play. Beautiful and heartbreaking.
I am familiar with the Frankenstein story, but I never thought I could empathise with the monster which is usually portrayed by a hulking creature with bolts in his neck. I mean, who could feel for someone like that?
But this play changed everything.
The story is told from the viewpoint of the monster, and starts out with his birth as a full-grown man and showed how he was like a baby, in that he struggled to learn how to walk and talk. We were treated to his childlike wonder at experiencing things for the first time, like grass and sunrise and snow. He was so moved by the sunrise that he wept with joy. And it was so fun to see him revel in snow as he yelled “White, what? White, what?”
Jonny really deserved props for his acting. Those first few minutes when he had to writhe about on the floor pretending to learn how to walk must have been extremely exhausting. Whenever he talked, he did so in a garbled way, seemingly like someone who has just recently learned to do so.
I had a lot of emotions throughout the play. Childlike wonder like the creature. Laughing out loud at his conversations with his first friend, a blind old man. Horror at the despicable things he did out of revenge. Heartbreak at how he was treated because of the way he looked, when all he really wanted was just to be loved. I even shed a tear in the end.
So was it worth watching? A resounding YES.
I wish they’d sell more tickets for Benedict as creature. I would definitely watch it again for that.
*SPOILER ALERT*
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
De Lacey: It is night in the Garden of Eden. Do you see the moon?
Creature: There. There it is.
De Lacey: Describe it to me.
Creature: Solitary.
De Lacey: That’s a good word. Good.
Creature: And sad, like me.
De Lacey: Why is it sad?
Creature: Because it is solitary.
De Lacey: Why are you sad?
Creature: Because with all that I read, all that I learn, I discover how much I do not know. Ideas batter me like hailstones. Questions but no answers. Who am I? Where am I from? Do I have a family?
Creature: Is this the region, this the soil, the clime, said then the lost archangel: “Is this the seat that we must change for heaven? This mournful gloom for that celestial light?”
Victor: That’s Paradise Lost, you’ve read Paradise Lost?
Creature: I liked it.
Victor: Why you saw- you saw yourself as Adam?
Creature: I should be Adam. God was proud of Adam, but Satan’s the one I sympathise with, for I was cast out like Satan though I did no wrong. And when I see others content and to feel the bile rise in my throat, and it tastes like Satan’s bile.
Creature: Because I am lonely! Every creature has a mate. Every bird in the sky! Even you are to be married! Why am I denied the comforts you allow yourself? A moment ago you were amazed at my intellect, but now you harden your heart. Please, do not be inconsistent, I find it infuriating! All I ask is the possibility of love.
Victor: Love?
Creature: Yes!
Victor: You think it is a possibility?
Creature: Yes!
Victor: What does it feel like to be in love?
Creature: It feels like everything is boiling over and spilling out of me; it feels like my lungs are on fire, and my heart is a hammer, and I feel like I can do anything…I feel like I can do anything in the world.
Victor: Is that how it feels?
Creature: Yes! That is how it feels. Bring her to life, and I will cherish her forever.
Slowly I learnt the ways of humans: how to ruin, how to hate, how to debase, how to humiliate. And at the feet of my master I learnt the highest of human skills, the skill no other creature owns: I finally learnt how to lie.
Don’t leave me. Don’t leave me alone, Master. What is death? What will it feel like? Can I die? Frankenstein forgive me, my cruelty, please forgive me. All I wanted was your love, I would have loved you with all my heart. My poor creator.
Victor: I don’t know what love is.
Creature: I will teach you!
Victor: Yes. You understand it better than I. Do you have a soul, and I none?
Creature (elated): I don’t know! Let’s debate!
Victor: Every chance I had of love, I threw away. Every shred of human warmth, I cut to pieces. Hatred is what I understand. Nothingness. Despair. I am finished. – But you give me purpose. You, I desire. Go on. Walk on. You must be destroyed.
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