From Thursday 30th April, in accordance with their YouTube Live at Home releases, The National Theatre posted the archived 2011 production of Frankenstein, for the duration of one week. Discard your traditional ideas of Frankenstein, cast away the dated green 6ft man with a bolt in his neck, and strap in for Danny Boyle and Nick Dear’s gruesome epic adaptation of Shelley’s renowned novel.

This premise of the production is epitomised by Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller’s alternating between the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature.

The inharmonious movement of [Cumberbatch’s] limbs reinforces the monstrosity of the creature’s incompatible patched up body parts

The Creature’s atmospheric birthing scene opens the play as a spectacularly uncanny and highly uncomfortable introduction to this adaptation’s direction. Emerging from this placental womb, the grotesque reality of the ‘birth’ of this disfigured full-grown man both jars and seizes the audience. Alone and tentatively exploring the world, Cumberbatch writhes in almost inhuman movement, highlighting, very expertly the mismatched construction of his body. The inharmonious movement of his limbs reinforces the monstrosity of the creature’s incompatible patched up body parts.

This almost 10 minute ‘birth’ is an excruciating yet bizarrely voyeuristic experience, watching as the Creature acclimatises to the world is jarringly uncanny.

Boyle and Dear methodically present the Creature as discovering elemental truths throughout this birth, echoing a condensed journey of mankind, exploring the fundamentals of weather and fire for example, portraying the primal, ultimately human experience of this subhuman creature. This grotesqueness is consistent throughout as Cumberbatch’s intricate facial mannerisms and bodily twitching never fail to remind the audience of his monstrosity.

 

Intriguingly this underdog perspective opposes Shelley’s original novel by following the creature’s life and subsequently minimising the effect of Victor’s initial arrogance that is central to the novel. This perspective humanises the monster in a way that neither Shelley nor the make-up department do, providing more rational reasoning for the Creature’s tragic actions. This production presents Victor as maniacally hubristic, yet this straying from the Shelley characterisation adds a sense of danger to the character, and potentially explains the Creature’s ultimate dark actions toward the end.

Miller embodies this antagonistic role through physical tension and aggressive tone

While playing the role of Victor, Miller is menacingly driven with palpable arrogance. This is distinctly effective providing a contrast to the Creature. Miller embodies this antagonistic role through physical tension and aggressive tone, presenting the detriment of this godly power and ultimately inciting fear in the audience as a very real dangerous threat. This antagonistic depiction is furthered by his perpetuation of sexist remarks made to his fiancé.

From this, I would have to disagree with Michael Billington’s review of the original production branding it as ‘a feminist critique’ as even the novel itself is undeniably not a feminist tale. This adaptation particularly disagrees with Billington’s statement as the female creature raises feminist issues within the novel and production. This female creature as a character, and onstage presence, is notably silent, created by men, and is punished for her womb. Victor leads the female creature onstage as a half-alive, naked object, physicalising this objectification of women as male company. She is then punished for the existence of her womb, which ironically Victor had full control over giving her, therefore he seemingly created her to kill her. However, the morsel of agency that Elizabeth depicts through her clear reasonable intellect and lack of general ‘female’ hysteria as seen in the novel is more refreshing making her death all the more tragic.

Victor leads the female creature onstage as a half-alive, naked object, physicalising this objectification of women

Once again, the National Theatre has excelled with the set design of this production, sparing no expense the stylishly constructed scenes and effects range from producing weathers, burning homes, the icy landscapes of the arctic, replicating Northern Lights and the unforgettable cocoonlike womb. Mark Tildesley’s design incorporates the argument between nature and industrialisation as the invasive ominous steam train hides and reveals a strip of verdant grass, enabling the Creature’s conflicting interaction with both humanity and nature.

One cannot help but notice, however, that some set pieces are unfortunately underused as the spectacular steam train is used only once. Sadly, owing to the nature of the filming, the cacophony of lights hanging over the stage are missed in the camera angles, however when they are caught in shot, they are highly effective in representing the natural power of life through the Northern Lights imagery.

Significant moments are punctuated with discordant and dissonant music, accentuating the genre as well as reinforcing the emotions of the Creature, projecting his life as the central storyline.  You cannot watch this production without recognising the extraordinary composition of the Creature’s makeup which is clearly extremely versatile as well as convincingly grotesque.

The true tragedy highlighted in this adaptation is the baseness of both creature and man at the end

The true tragedy highlighted in this adaptation is the baseness of both creature and man at the end. Frankenstein’s god-like hubris and abuse (and murder) of his creations, alongside the Creature’s torturous tendencies and murderous streak makes neither character likeable or empathetic. It is recognised that both men are entirely dependent on each other for purpose and meaning, neither character gets what they desire, blaming each to her for their misfortunes and living to exact revenge on the other.

Where once the Creature was vulnerable, his excessive search for revenge tragically drags him down to the level of Frankenstein and the audience is left in a cathartic tragedy of the fall of both man and beast. The audience is left to wonder which character is the true monster of the play.

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