Frankenstein
Feb. 27th, 2011 02:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dormouse1953Went to see the new production of Frankenstein at the National Theatre yesterday afternoon. There were four actors indisposed, including two of the headline stars, Benedict Cumberbatch and Naomie Harris.
Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller are supposed to be alternating the roles of Frankenstein and the monster, so Miller was still available to play the monster, a virtuoso performance, but understudy Daniel Ings played Frankenstein, and did very well. Harris was to play Frankenstein's fiancée, Elizabeth, and her understudy was Lizzie Winkler, already playing Agatha, fortunately already dead when Elizabeth appears.
Four members of the cast struck down for one performance! No explanation as to why. You'd think there would a news item about it, what with the high profile the show has had in the press this week. Checked the BBC news on my phone on the way home and the headline in entertainment was that a performance of King Lear had been cancelled in Wales following Sir Derek Jacobi losing his voice, but nothing about Frankenstein, and a quick google has brought nothing up.
Incidentally, John Clute has a collection of essays coming out called Pardon the Intrusion, these being the first words the monster says in the book when he introduces himself to the blind de Lacey. The equivalent words in the play are "Piss off! Bugger off!"
Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller are supposed to be alternating the roles of Frankenstein and the monster, so Miller was still available to play the monster, a virtuoso performance, but understudy Daniel Ings played Frankenstein, and did very well. Harris was to play Frankenstein's fiancée, Elizabeth, and her understudy was Lizzie Winkler, already playing Agatha, fortunately already dead when Elizabeth appears.
Four members of the cast struck down for one performance! No explanation as to why. You'd think there would a news item about it, what with the high profile the show has had in the press this week. Checked the BBC news on my phone on the way home and the headline in entertainment was that a performance of King Lear had been cancelled in Wales following Sir Derek Jacobi losing his voice, but nothing about Frankenstein, and a quick google has brought nothing up.
Incidentally, John Clute has a collection of essays coming out called Pardon the Intrusion, these being the first words the monster says in the book when he introduces himself to the blind de Lacey. The equivalent words in the play are "Piss off! Bugger off!"
