NT Live's 'Frankenstein' hits the silver screen
In the thrilling first moments of the National Theater production of "Frankenstein," directed with rough magic by Danny Boyle and screening in the Capital Region through NT Live, a newborn tumbles hard from the womb and straight into the struggle that is life.
Even those allergic to step-by-step chronicles of other people's babies are sure to be spellbound by the initial progress of the big little guy at the center of Nick Dear's adaptation of Mary Shelley's archetypal monster novel of 1818.
Alternately portrayed by the British stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller (who also take turns playing the monster's creator, Victor Frankenstein), this man-size infant will grow up to be reviled and hunted for his terrifying otherness.
Terror and wonder segue into more pedestrian feelings -- including annoyance and a sense of opportunities lost -- as this production continues on its brutal course.
Shelley's novel is constructed in multiple narrative frames, with the story of one young scientist's disastrous desire to play God told not only by Victor Frankenstein, but also by the traveler who finds him in extremis and, in the work's most audacious chapters, the monster.