Frankenstein

Frankenstein, Olivier Theatre, 2011.

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Jonny Lee Miller, Mark Armstrong, Martin Chamberlain, Josie Daxter, Haydon Downing, Steven Elliott, George Harris, Naomie Harris, Daniel Ings, Karl Johnson, John Killoran, Daniel Millar, William Nye, Andreea Padurariu, Jared Richard, Ella Smith, John Stahl, Lizzie Winkler.

Writer: Nick Dear

Director: Danny Boyle

Music & Sound scape: Underworld

This was a very big deal and I'm not sure I realised at the time just how lucky I was to get tickets for it. It's the kind of combination of people that can surely happen only once in a lifetime. The following year Danny Boyle did the Olympics opening ceremony and has only done one piece of theatre since (Manchester, 2023). Benedict Cumberbatch has only done Hamlet since this and I can't imagine he'll be rushing back to a theatre any time soon. The day I went he was playing the creature but I saw it in the cinema with Jonny Lee Miller playing the creature so I completed the set. I'd forgotten it was straight through with no interval. I remember entering the theatre and being impressed by how they'd lit the set. This is how to do a story everyone knows too well.