Frankenstein
Soooooooooooooooo I have a lot to say about seeing Frankenstein at the Phoenix Art Museum tonight. Not all of it is going to be pretty and it's going under a cut for those who do not wish to be 'offended' not that that matters since no one reads this anyways.
Frankenstein, in and of itself, was an amazing, awe-inspiring play. I am one of those horrible people that never read the book when I was a child (though it's been sitting on my Kindle since I received it two and a half years ago) and I find it to be both a pro and con when seeing this.
Before the play started, the featurette before it gave a brief overview of Frankenstein in general. Most people know of Frankenstein from the 1930s, when the great Boris Karloff brought the Monster to the screen. And that's what he was portrayed as - a monster. From what I can remember, he never had lines, he never was given a voice, he was just a monster that people feared for being created. They feared him cause he was different and ugly and so many other things. It was just another horror movie to make money off of, considering how many sequels there were, and the pack of famous monsters (The Monster, the Mummy, the Werewolf, etc.) that he became a part of. Not to say that these movies didn't have significance, no, in movie history, these movies were some of our most influential on horror and cinematography today. But that's not the proper Creature, he's just a movie monster meant to scare people.
I remember when I first saw Young Frankenstein. It's one of Mel Brooks' classic comedies, one of the very few I can watch over and over again. Peter Boyle plays the Creature, who is modeled after the Frankenstein of old cinema. But the one thing that surprised me and completely made me see the Creature in a new view was at the end, when he goes into monologue. It was surprising! Every iteration of the Creature thus far had done nothing but a mindless husk, something that went around and destroyed for the sake of destroying. But no, this one spoke, he theorized and managed to placate the townspeople. Even though it went into a humorous ending, I remember being utterly surprised to find out that THAT was the closest anyone had ever come to the original book and it made me think beyond just the movie. Now, I'll admit, I should have simply gone to read the damned book back then when I had more time, but I made the mistake of never doing so, and I regret it and will do my best to make more time for reading this summer.
Still! The play brings to light the beauty and horror of life. The Creature is alive, he wakes up and appreciates the smaller things that we forget to love and adore every day. Sunlight. Birds. Music. Rain. Earth. Things we take for granted, he experiences for the first time and has an adoration for all that they bring him. He learns from the kindness of an old man's heart, and he's destroyed by our cruelty for things we don't understand. The Creature learns how skewed we are despite how good we claim to be. How can something supposedly so good fight wars and kill one another? How can they claim to understand one another yet be so cruel? And Victor, oh dear Victor. You can see from the beginning that perhaps the Creature and Victor are the same thing from different parts of society. He's learned from across the world, he knows Milton and science and math. He's tried to become a God in his own respect. But he is the cruelty of man that the Creature has read about. He cares not for anything but his science, for the chance to go beyond. And much like his creation, he doesn't understand love. They are both given the world on a platter, only to throw it away for revenge and hatred. And it is only in the end that they find what love is, as cold and cruel and frigid as the North pole itself, after they both have lost everything in their lives.
The play itself portrayed everything beautifully. Johnny Lee Miller was an amazing Creature, managing to bring the childlike innocence and hatred to his character. When you saw him admire the earth or the sun, you felt like he really was seeing it for the first time. When you saw him kill, you knew he understood what he was doing and why he did it, even if it wasn't as justified as he thought it was. He monologues were beautiful and articulate yet not, much like any Creature would be. He was magnificent in every respect and I truly cannot wait for the chance to see him as Frankenstein, if not in other roles as he perhaps becomes more prominent in his career.
Benedict Cumberbatch is an amazing actor. Yes, I will admit that I originally went to see it for him, since everything I've seen him in has been literately spectacular with just how versatile he is. But trust me, he did not steal the show but shared it with Johnny, and their chemistry was amazing. His Victor was cold and detached (not in a bad way, just the way the character was meant to be.) He portrayed someone trying to play God when he didn't even understand himself, much less another human being, and how he was destroyed by his own creation that was nothing more than a reflection of his own failings. He was beautiful and I'm excited to see what life he can bring to the Creature, which he was originally cast as.
So, while the play was amazing and stunning and has me analyzing it to a ridiculous point, I can't say the same for the audience that I viewed it with. Now, don't get me wrong, you could say I'm a fangirl in my own right. I understand that. I watch Doctor Who, I love and adore Sherlock (which actually got me to read the originals, which are amazing) Supernatural is my show and so many others. I play video games and fangirl over silly things. But at the same time, I know how to show respect. Having come from a theatre background, respect is one of the main things to be had during a show. If a line if meant to be funny, an actor will pause and let the audience enjoy that before continuing. That doesn't mean laughing loud and obnoxiously to the point that one can't even hear the next point of dialogue. The very beginning, when the Creature was learning how to walk, teaching himself his digits and just how to move, it wasn't funny. It was a beautiful statement to how quickly a human mind can learn and adapt, how he grew to standing and walking in a matter of minutes when it normally takes YEARS for humans to do so. It wasn't anything to laugh at, and yet the audience found it nothing more than a jest and laughed when they should have been appreciating. I'm a fangirl yes, but I am not disrespectful towards something like that. And dressing up and marking yourself like a Doctor Who character does NOT make me want to like you. You're not at a fucking convention, your at the god damned art museum, show some fucking respect. And I don't mean to generalize everyone there, since I'm sure there's people out there that appreciate the beauty that is the play just as it should be. But come on, people. You can do better.
Other than that, I had a wonderful day at the museum. My sister and I were there a few hours early since I had never been, and it's a beautiful place that I definitely want to visit again. Just hopefully, the next showing won't be as jam packed with fangirls and tarnish that experience as well. Fingers crossed they put it on DVD for me to enjoy on my own, if so.
...and yeah, for those who still care here, maybe I'll actually post an update on my life soon? Yeah? Maybe?
Frankenstein, in and of itself, was an amazing, awe-inspiring play. I am one of those horrible people that never read the book when I was a child (though it's been sitting on my Kindle since I received it two and a half years ago) and I find it to be both a pro and con when seeing this.
Before the play started, the featurette before it gave a brief overview of Frankenstein in general. Most people know of Frankenstein from the 1930s, when the great Boris Karloff brought the Monster to the screen. And that's what he was portrayed as - a monster. From what I can remember, he never had lines, he never was given a voice, he was just a monster that people feared for being created. They feared him cause he was different and ugly and so many other things. It was just another horror movie to make money off of, considering how many sequels there were, and the pack of famous monsters (The Monster, the Mummy, the Werewolf, etc.) that he became a part of. Not to say that these movies didn't have significance, no, in movie history, these movies were some of our most influential on horror and cinematography today. But that's not the proper Creature, he's just a movie monster meant to scare people.
I remember when I first saw Young Frankenstein. It's one of Mel Brooks' classic comedies, one of the very few I can watch over and over again. Peter Boyle plays the Creature, who is modeled after the Frankenstein of old cinema. But the one thing that surprised me and completely made me see the Creature in a new view was at the end, when he goes into monologue. It was surprising! Every iteration of the Creature thus far had done nothing but a mindless husk, something that went around and destroyed for the sake of destroying. But no, this one spoke, he theorized and managed to placate the townspeople. Even though it went into a humorous ending, I remember being utterly surprised to find out that THAT was the closest anyone had ever come to the original book and it made me think beyond just the movie. Now, I'll admit, I should have simply gone to read the damned book back then when I had more time, but I made the mistake of never doing so, and I regret it and will do my best to make more time for reading this summer.
Still! The play brings to light the beauty and horror of life. The Creature is alive, he wakes up and appreciates the smaller things that we forget to love and adore every day. Sunlight. Birds. Music. Rain. Earth. Things we take for granted, he experiences for the first time and has an adoration for all that they bring him. He learns from the kindness of an old man's heart, and he's destroyed by our cruelty for things we don't understand. The Creature learns how skewed we are despite how good we claim to be. How can something supposedly so good fight wars and kill one another? How can they claim to understand one another yet be so cruel? And Victor, oh dear Victor. You can see from the beginning that perhaps the Creature and Victor are the same thing from different parts of society. He's learned from across the world, he knows Milton and science and math. He's tried to become a God in his own respect. But he is the cruelty of man that the Creature has read about. He cares not for anything but his science, for the chance to go beyond. And much like his creation, he doesn't understand love. They are both given the world on a platter, only to throw it away for revenge and hatred. And it is only in the end that they find what love is, as cold and cruel and frigid as the North pole itself, after they both have lost everything in their lives.
The play itself portrayed everything beautifully. Johnny Lee Miller was an amazing Creature, managing to bring the childlike innocence and hatred to his character. When you saw him admire the earth or the sun, you felt like he really was seeing it for the first time. When you saw him kill, you knew he understood what he was doing and why he did it, even if it wasn't as justified as he thought it was. He monologues were beautiful and articulate yet not, much like any Creature would be. He was magnificent in every respect and I truly cannot wait for the chance to see him as Frankenstein, if not in other roles as he perhaps becomes more prominent in his career.
Benedict Cumberbatch is an amazing actor. Yes, I will admit that I originally went to see it for him, since everything I've seen him in has been literately spectacular with just how versatile he is. But trust me, he did not steal the show but shared it with Johnny, and their chemistry was amazing. His Victor was cold and detached (not in a bad way, just the way the character was meant to be.) He portrayed someone trying to play God when he didn't even understand himself, much less another human being, and how he was destroyed by his own creation that was nothing more than a reflection of his own failings. He was beautiful and I'm excited to see what life he can bring to the Creature, which he was originally cast as.
So, while the play was amazing and stunning and has me analyzing it to a ridiculous point, I can't say the same for the audience that I viewed it with. Now, don't get me wrong, you could say I'm a fangirl in my own right. I understand that. I watch Doctor Who, I love and adore Sherlock (which actually got me to read the originals, which are amazing) Supernatural is my show and so many others. I play video games and fangirl over silly things. But at the same time, I know how to show respect. Having come from a theatre background, respect is one of the main things to be had during a show. If a line if meant to be funny, an actor will pause and let the audience enjoy that before continuing. That doesn't mean laughing loud and obnoxiously to the point that one can't even hear the next point of dialogue. The very beginning, when the Creature was learning how to walk, teaching himself his digits and just how to move, it wasn't funny. It was a beautiful statement to how quickly a human mind can learn and adapt, how he grew to standing and walking in a matter of minutes when it normally takes YEARS for humans to do so. It wasn't anything to laugh at, and yet the audience found it nothing more than a jest and laughed when they should have been appreciating. I'm a fangirl yes, but I am not disrespectful towards something like that. And dressing up and marking yourself like a Doctor Who character does NOT make me want to like you. You're not at a fucking convention, your at the god damned art museum, show some fucking respect. And I don't mean to generalize everyone there, since I'm sure there's people out there that appreciate the beauty that is the play just as it should be. But come on, people. You can do better.
Other than that, I had a wonderful day at the museum. My sister and I were there a few hours early since I had never been, and it's a beautiful place that I definitely want to visit again. Just hopefully, the next showing won't be as jam packed with fangirls and tarnish that experience as well. Fingers crossed they put it on DVD for me to enjoy on my own, if so.
...and yeah, for those who still care here, maybe I'll actually post an update on my life soon? Yeah? Maybe?