Frankenstein and dinner with the Vicar



Now I have never really been a fan of the film maker Danny Boyle.
I liked 28 Days Later...
But the other movies he has made, I can generally take or leave. Having said this, I had heard good things about his stage production of Frankenstein at the National Theatre, and so last night we went to the the encore screening of it at the Scala which starred Jonny Lee Miller as the Monster and flavour-of-the-month Benedict Cummerbatch , as Victor.
The play surprised me.It surprised me because of Miller's performance which dominated the stage with a physicality that wavered impressively between child like exuberance and menacing horror.
And it surprised me because the innovative staging which amongst other things, incorporated a massive steam locomotive whose moving parts were made up of actors ,a massive, fluid chandelier light show and an odd drum-like womb out of which the monster is born, naked and helpless.

Boyle's design is , at times, breathtaking and I couldn't help wondering just what he is going to pull out of his bag with the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
If indeed it is on a par with what I saw last night, the whole thing is going to be thoughtful, slightly quirky and visually very VERY punchy!



Apparently Boyle is using live chickens in his opening ceremony production
So it can't be all that bad!!!!
Tonight we are off out again!
(yes it's all go in Trelawnyd)
I am accompanying Chris to a church dinner in the nearby village of Cwm ( where the three parish congregations in the area get together for a bit of a bun fight)

I am driving and have promised a few villagers that I will give them a lift.....and I had to laugh yesterday when Mrs Trellis called around to see if there was room for her.

I told her that there was and that I would make sure the car was a bit cleaner before I called up for her and after slyly looking at the dog snot smeared windows of the berlingo parked in the driveway she said wryly

"I'll bring my own towel to sit on"

ps Bunty is still sat comfortably on the cottage guttering this morning

19 comments:

  1. How funny - we went to see Frankenstein last night as well - but we had it the other way round...we saw it with Jonny Lee Miller as the monster last year. Overall I preferred the version you saw as I wasn't convinced by BC's approach....although both versions are absolutely brilliant. I nearly jumped out of my seat as some parts of the play have definitely provided inspiration for the Opening Ceremony...and that is a good thing!

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  2. It might have doubled-up as the set for the Eurovision Song Contest too. Thank goodness we didn't win.

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  3. I think quirky is the best description I was a little bemused by it but we need a very British "just not quiet as good as it could have been" production coupled with a "sorry - not sure I got what that was all about" element too...

    The model of the set looked ace! Looked like something A level Art students had made!!!

    We talked about it at home and were like is green and pleasant land really it? What about the Dark Satanic Mills all the things we brought the world, gun boat diplomacy, industrial revolution, slum urban living conditions, Dickens etc... Hmm maybe not :-)

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  4. I like the idea of building a quarter-sized model of Glastonbury Tor in the stadium. When you drive over the Mendips, the Tor sticks out as iconically as anything you could possibly think of.

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  5. Let's say the opening ceremony can only be better than our (Canada's)effort at the Winter Olympics.
    Jane x

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  6. Is Boyle planning to sacrifice live chickens at the opening of The Olympics? Even the Chinese didn't think of that. Slaughtering a few sheep would also raise the roof if the stadium had a roof to keep off the inevitable summer downpour

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  7. Can't help but feel concerns for the chickens....

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  8. Hope you have a grand time at the dinner. Who knows, maybe you'll be able to surprise Mrs T by pulling up in a shiny, snot-free Berlingo?

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  9. I can see it now...a fleet of snot-encrusted Berlingos zooms into the center of the stadium, forming the Olympic rings...then releases an enormous flock of scruffy bog-standard chickens.

    We can only hope they involve pigs some way, too.

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  10. Anonymous4:39 pm

    Chickens in opening ceremony? (Shaking humidity/heat addled American brain) Bun fight? Do you mean bum? (that's still absurd.) How in the world is Cwm pronounced? (I just may not be running on all cylinders today. (I did notice the windows on my scion have lost their transparency due to dog snot...)

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  11. I've been very down on the Olympic's opening ceremony until I learnt Boyle was on board... I think it could be rather interesting and an impressive surprise.

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  12. Poor Mrs Trellis...a bit leaky is she?.....

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  13. I hear the Olympic countryside mock-up will include a massive 100 turbine wind farm and a huge protest march by angry locals. Or then again, maybe I've been misinformed....

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  14. I would love to see the show, but unless I see it on DVD it's not going to happen. (Flavor of the month? Well, I guess, but I still think he and Freeman are great on Sherlock...)

    Cat

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  15. Boyle's design looks like ants crawling over a Caesar Salad in an over-sized white bowl! LOL!

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  16. You are a good soul John enjoy the bun fight !

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  17. Looks good. I'm caught up in the drama of Bunty more though.

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  18. Anonymous10:44 pm

    How in the world do you pronounce Cwm? And does the automatic spellcheck on your Mac laptops keep trying to correct it to Can or Com or Come?
    Dxox

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