Thur 14 Jun, 20:30 (Reverse cast, with Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature, on Sun 17 Jun, 17:30)
On the eve of Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony we re-present his radical look at Frankenstein in which Jonny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch alternated roles of Dr Frankenstein and The Creature on the stage of the National Theatre. Filmed in live performance last year, these Encore screenings offer an opportunity to experience afresh the raw intensity of these productions.
Mary Shelley’s classic gothic novel, in a bravura vision from Danny Boyle and Nick Dear.
“I followed nature into her lair, and stripped her of her secrets! I brought torrents of light to a darkening world! Is that wrong?”
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.
“All I ask is the possibility of love!”
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.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is adapted for the stage by Nick Dear and realised by Danny Boyle in his return to the theatre after winning the Academy Award for best director for Slumdog Millionaire.
Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alternate the roles of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature. See one, see both!
“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.”
