Director Danny Boyle (Oscar-winning director of Slumdog Millionaire) overlays Mary Shelley’s monster fable with electrifying theatricality — there’s a Victorian steam train, the pine-fragrant shores of Lake Geneva, an icy denouement in the frozen Arctic and an entire canopy of lights over the stage, as well as a remarkably terrifying introduction of the Creature, when he bursts naked upon the stage in his first spasms of life.
Who is the man and who the monster asks Shelley, as the Doctor loses his humanity while the Creature gains his. Along with becoming more human, the Creature discovers man’s baser instincts and behavior, such as jealousy, revenge and murder. If Frankenstein is the ego, than his Creature is the id. All he wants is a little love. Denied that, all hell breaks loose.
7 p.m. Saturday and Monday. Additional screening dates vary by location. Various locations, including Houston Marq*E Stadium 23 plus IMAX 7620 Katy Freeway. For information, visit ntlive.nationaltheatre.org.uk. $15.
Mon., Oct. 27, 7 p.m.; Wed., Oct. 29, 7 p.m., 2014
