Review of National Theatre Live's Frankenstein with Benedict Cumberbatch as the Creature

The National Theatre have been putting on encore screenings of Frankenstein, Danny Boyle's take on the Mary Shelly classic. I watched the version with Benedict Cumberbatch as the Creature and Jonny Lee Miller as Victor Frankenstein.

In case you didn't realise, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller took it it turns to play the Creature and Frankenstein. Here's a little taste of what the show is about.

I have to be honest my knowledge of Frankenstein is pretty limited. I know of the Universal Frankenstein monster mash film but I've never actually seen an adaptation so I was going in to this pretty blind.

The opening begins when the Creature is born, Cumberbatch is so innocent he is really quite a sweet being at first. He is totally confused to why he was cast out and why his creator (and parent), Frankenstein, doesn't love him. Cumberbatch plays him full of pathos it's hard to see him as a monster, more of a lost and unwanted child.

De Lacey is the first person who befriends the Creature. He teaches him, educates him but he's also blind so doesn't see what he looks like or at least what everyone else sees first. De Lacey is convinced that his son and daughter-in-law with accept him but when they meet, they can't get over the way he looks. They never even give him a chance; so the Creature takes vengeance out on them and burns their house down.

It might sound cliche but the story does hold up fantastically well in this day and age. The scientific implication (cloning) are terrifyingly modern but so is how people judge each other on the way they look. And what about what Frankenstein taught (even unintentionally) the Creature about man; cheating, getting vengeance, lying. He showed him we like to create, but we also like to destroy. Surely that's not what we want our legacy to be, do we?

Benedict Cumberbatch really is a fantastic actor, he brings so much to this role of what many people think is just a "monster." These encore screenings may have come around because of a sudden renewed interest in him as Sherlock, but I'm sure nobody minds that.

Jonny Lee Miller's Frankenstein for me was a bit harsh. He's quite hard to find sympathy with, at least at the beginning. He's created life, but has no interest in looking after it. He seems very distant from his fiancee and as she rightly pointed out, if he wanted to create life he could have got her pregnant. Another part which I thought Frankenstein was unduly brutal was when he struck the deal with the Creature to create a "wife" only for him to destroy her in front of the Creature. Surely he didn't deserve that? It seems so cruel and unnecessary. I felt he had what's coming to him. Of course the Creature does bad things. He kills Frankenstein's little brother, and he knew it was wrong but he said he wanted vengeance and he was thinking like a man.

What the Creature does at the end to Frankenstein's fiancee, he can not come back from. But I think that's the moment when Frankenstein realises what he's actually done and takes some responsibility. When the Creature thinks Frankenstein is dead it's quite adorable when he says he would always love him,  just like a child would say to their parent. They need each other to exist.

Can you call the Creature evil? Was he born a monster or did society turn him into what people thought he was? What if we were a more understanding society of people who look different? Would he still have turned out the way he was? For me, this all holds true; more than ever are we a society obsessed with how people look and judgemental on their appearance.

The production design was wonderful and the stage was used to great effect. The moveable sets looked marvelous and it felt like the stage was much bigger than it actually was. The make-up was also amazing; it's fantastic when the Creature is "born". He's like a baby animal trying to find his feet; slightly funny but really sweet. Before the show started, there was a little "Making Of" which personally I thought should have been at the end. It's like watching the DVD extras before you've seen the film. 


For me, the saddest part of the show was that the Creature was just lonely. I found it really heartbreaking when the Creature says he has no name, he feels like he has no identity. Isn't that everyone's fear deep down; being on their own? If only Frankenstein wasn't repulsed by him, I think the Creature would have been so different. He could have taught him to be a decent man, and not leave him to learn from the bloody history of others. 

Frankenstein has more encore screenings going on throughout July; I can't recommend it enough.