Frankenstein

Question 1

Cast and Crew

Answer 1

• Director: Danny Boyle
• Adapted by: Nick Dear
• The Creature: Benedict Cumberbatch
• Victor Frankenstein: Jonny Lee Miller
• Agatha de Lacey: Lizzie Winkler
• De Lacey, her father-in Law: Karl Johnson
• Felix de Lacey, his son: Daniel Millar
• Elizabeth Lavenza, Victor’s fiancée: Naomie Harris
• William Frankenstein, Victor’s brother: Willian Nye
• Mr. Frankenstein, father of Victor and William: George Harris
• Clarice, Elizabeth’s maid: Ella Smith

Question 2

Scene 1

Answer 2

• Trauma of birth, human experience
• Learns to move his body and gain control of his muscles
• Use entire stage (runs around with heavy gat imitating toddler)
• An elastic dissembled womb (red hues, veins)
• Gasps, grunts, laughs
• Twitches, controls, jerks, struggles
• Lighting installation featuring over 3,000 filament light bulbs that pulsated, flashed and coalesced as the creature came to life
• Lights blinded the audience, assaulted the senses (theatre of cruelty)
• Physical theatre: stylised and abstract movement
• Limited other movement on stage = focus on The Creature

Question 3

Discovering Nature

Answer 3

• Birds flying upwards
• Grass on stage
• Gesture widely with his arms
• Shouting in light tone
• Low intensity white spotlight on Cumberbatch as water fell from the roof
• Etherical music in the background to a quiet hum
• Cumberbatch slowly reach out for the rain, poked his tongue out to taste it
• Human experience, beauty of nature
• Audience emphasises with The Creature

Question 4

Elizabeth

Answer 4

• Light of the play
• Wants to have a happy marriage with Frankenstein
• Wants to learn, travel, become more
• Lower status as a woman
• Scene in which she is killed
• Convey her innocence, purity, empathy, enthusiasm
• Light, white nightgown
• Wringing hands in front of her chest, tall posture, bouncing on her feet, light tone
• Set is saturated with white light, painted white
• Cohesion between acting, directing and design

Question 5

Kiss Scene

Answer 5

• Emphasis of love
• Prior, abandoned by his creator and subjected to a beating by two men
• Cumberbatch blocked upstage left
• Millar and Winkler blocked centre downstage
• Cumberbatch stills his movements to watch the kiss
• Wonder and confusion at the public display of affection
• Watches them run off longingly before focus is snapped elsewhere
• First witness of love

Question 6

De Lacey

Answer 6

• Paternal figure and teacher
• Generous, blind, intelligent, caring
• Motivation is to show The Creature that good people exist and he can became one of them
• Objective is to teach him morals, literature and about society
• These teachings follow The Creature through the play, shows De Lacey’s importance and influence
• Shows that the Creature is rejected because of his appearance
• Focus on the areas surrounding other actors, not on them to convey blindness
• High status as he is a father figure and intelligent man, but low status in society because he is poor