Thursday, October 27, 2022

National Frankenstein Friday

 

As it seems to annually, the encore showing of National Theater Live's 2011 stage production of Frankenstein played once again mid-to-late October. I'd always wondered why October and now I think I have an answer.

The last Friday in October is apparently National Frankenstein Friday. :0) That's tomorrow.

DD and I attended this year's encore showing. We were all supposed to go as part of DH's birthday celebrations as it showed on his birthday this year and I didn't want to miss it, but DH wasn't feeling well and, sadly, opted out.

She liked it okay, but said she wouldn't watch it again. Honestly, I go for Benedict's performance, which never ceases to amaze me. I've never read the actual book, but am now curious about how aligned with the book this production is. The other thing that struck me--for the second year in a row, actually--is how one of the soliloquies in this adaptation addresses a few things we're still dealing with in 2011 when this was first performed as well as 2023--acceptance despite one's looks, one's education, one's background; a person's need and desire for love, for basic human decency; and that hatred is taught/learned by one's experiences in the world. The performances express it way better than I can.

If you get a chance to see this next year, you definitely should. Sign up for a Fathom Events Newsletter and be notified of all the really cool things that get get aired in the theaters besides just brand new films. And remember it'll be October in conjunction with National Frankenstein Day and just prior to Halloween.

On a related side note...the story of how Mary Shelley even came to write Frankenstein is quite an interesting one. Mary Shelley, then still Mary Wollonstonecraft, and her husband-to-be Percy Bysshe Shelley, her step-sister, as well as Lord Byron and Dr John Polidori were on holiday in Switzerland during the year without summer--1816.

Due to a volcanic eruption from Mount Tambora in Indonesia earlier that year, plumes of volcanic ash had traveled the globe and significantly cooled world-wide temperatures affecting food production and regular seasonal climates.

While stuck indoors due the unrelenting rains over Lake Geneva during their visit, the party started out taking turns telling ghost stories but then challenged one another to come up with their own tales of horror.

The result? Not only "A Modern Prometheus" aka Frankenstein, but "The Vampyre" which inspired the writing of "Dracula."

Are you a fan of the original tale or of the many subsequent movies and characters?

Have you seen the particular performance reference at the beginning of this post? If not, why not?? As you know Benedict Cumberbatch is AMAZING! :0)

Have a super end to your week and a great weekend. Take care.

No comments: