It's fascinating reading this now, when it's a couple of years since I saw the play (I was lucky enough to see both castings).
I didn't have the OMG!!11!11!!! reaction to the ending of the play when Cumberbatch played Victor. I felt like his need was driving the Creature forward. The hatred was there. The acceptance was there. But the flicker of a strange love or tenderness between the two wasn't.
I wonder if that was just that particular performance, because when I saw JLM's Creature, he moved me far more at the end with his tenderness towards Victor. But that could be something that grew as the production went on, as I saw his Creature in the very last performance.
We actually see the rape on stage, followed immediately by the Creature's fourth murder, so this is not an easy person to pity. And yet...
It's a terribly flawed play (it's telling that some of the most moving moments are when there's no dialogue - I've seen a couple of Nick Dear's plays, and wasn't wowed by the writing of either), but it does do a wonderful job of giving us the Creature's point of view. You gain so much sympathy for him early on, with his rejection by Victor and tormenting by the beggars, and then being driven off by Agatha and Felix, that it's impossible to lose it, even with all that he does.
I wish you could have experienced the music and lighting in person - the overture played well before the play starts, and the gigantic church bell hanging in the auditorium is tolled (I jumped so much the first time!), and it just created this amazing atmosphere.
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Date: 2014-01-21 05:58 pm (UTC)I didn't have the OMG!!11!11!!! reaction to the ending of the play when Cumberbatch played Victor. I felt like his need was driving the Creature forward. The hatred was there. The acceptance was there. But the flicker of a strange love or tenderness between the two wasn't.
I wonder if that was just that particular performance, because when I saw JLM's Creature, he moved me far more at the end with his tenderness towards Victor. But that could be something that grew as the production went on, as I saw his Creature in the very last performance.
We actually see the rape on stage, followed immediately by the Creature's fourth murder, so this is not an easy person to pity. And yet...
It's a terribly flawed play (it's telling that some of the most moving moments are when there's no dialogue - I've seen a couple of Nick Dear's plays, and wasn't wowed by the writing of either), but it does do a wonderful job of giving us the Creature's point of view. You gain so much sympathy for him early on, with his rejection by Victor and tormenting by the beggars, and then being driven off by Agatha and Felix, that it's impossible to lose it, even with all that he does.
I wish you could have experienced the music and lighting in person - the overture played well before the play starts, and the gigantic church bell hanging in the auditorium is tolled (I jumped so much the first time!), and it just created this amazing atmosphere.