Here's an opportunity both film and theater fans won't want to miss. The Guthrie will present Danny Boyle's all-new production of "Frankenstein" Sunday at 1 p.m. A critical triumph and box-office smash, the show has been sold out through its entire London run.
The show comes to Minneapolis via Britain's National Theatre Live, which broadcasts filmed editions of live performances to select venues around the world. Oscar-winning director Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire," "127 Hours") returns to his theater roots with playwright Nick Dear's original take on Mary Shelley's much-adapted horror classic. Sunday's version features Jonny Lee Miller (from Boyle's "Trainspotting") as Victor Frankenstein and Benedict Cumberbatch (PBS's 21st-century "Sherlock') as the creature. Throughout the theatrical run the actors have switch roles each performance. Dear's adaptation honors the core of Shelley's novel. Most films trash Shelley's conception of the creature, making him a grunting, lurching ogre, rather than the sensitive, articulate though destructive creature she described. The new production gives him back his unsettling intelligence. After a long season of study with a blind, scholarly hermit, the creature confronts Victor to ask the same questions any of us might put to our creator. Why did you give me life? Why do I suffer? Why have you abandoned me? When Victor's evasions and deceptions enrage him, the creature embarks on a blood-and-thunder rampage of murder and rape. The producers advise that this "Frankenstein" is suitable only for viewers 15 and older. Given Boyle's hair-raising track record with the undead ("28 Days Later"), violence ("Shallow Grave") and murderous monsters ("Sunshine"), I'd take their warning at face value. Single tickets are $20 and can be purchased through the Guthrie Box Office at 612.377.2224, toll-free 877.44.STAGE, 612-225-6244 (Group Sales) and online at www.guthrietheater.org .
