Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller do the monster mash: PATRICK MARMION reviews Frankenstein

Frankenstein (NT at Home, YouTube)

Verdict: There be monsters…

Rating:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (BBC iPlayer)

Verdict: A dream of a Dream

Rating:

Duelling has been illegal in Britain for hundreds of years, but that didn’t stop Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller going musket to musket in the National Theatre’s Frankenstein in 2011.

Danny Boyle’s production of Mary Shelley’s story saw the two men take turns at playing the parts of Swiss genius Dr Frankenstein and his monstrous creation ‘the creature’, switching roles on alternate nights.

This is an alpha-male stand-off of epic proportions — it’s like watching two stags locking antlers in rutting season.

Benedict Cumberbatch starring as Victor Frankenstein and Jonny Lee Miller as the creature in Frankenstein at the Olivier Theatre

Benedict Cumberbatch starring as Victor Frankenstein and Jonny Lee Miller as the creature in Frankenstein at the Olivier Theatre 

These NT Live recordings damn near blew the sockets off my television set, and both are now free to view online (Cumberbatch as the creature is already available until next Thursday; Miller can be seen in the same part from tonight until next Friday).

But which should you go for, if you have time for just one, two-hour performance?

Both men start with a long, grunting, gymnastic floor show of the creature’s birth on an empty stage.

But when Cumberbatch plays the creature, and Miller the creator, the performances seem more manic.

Cumberbatch, in particular, with bootlace stitching in his head, drooling and flailing his arms wildly while reciting Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost, may have been visible from the nearby Andromeda galaxy.

The stars switch roles on alternate nights and both versions of the production are available online. The National Theatre screened the version with Miller as the creature

The stars switch roles on alternate nights and both versions of the production are available online. The National Theatre screened the version with Miller as the creature 

By contrast, I found Miller’s version of the creature more tender. 

Likewise, Cumberbatch’s Frankenstein is more sensitive without losing touch with his deranged egomania (where Miller makes his mad scientist a hyper, swivel-eyed genius).

So I’d go for tonight’s version, with Miller as the creature, if you have to choose. But it does mean you get less time with Benedict’s Frankenstein, who barely shows up until the second half.

There are aspects of this pre-#MeToo production which would rightly be questioned today, including nudity and an assault.

But Boyle’s show has heroic vigour that bounces off the stage under a fizzing, crackling Milky Way of lights. 

It’s accompanied by heavy-duty drum and bells music to signify the emerging industrial revolution, too. 

Such macho German expressionism won’t be to everyone’s taste, but Cumberbatch fans have famously strong stomachs.

EMMA RICE’S 2016 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe has no right to prosper on a telly. 

A Midsummer Night’s Dream was considered 'too frisky and exuberant' to grace our living room TVs and was described as a magical 'dream of a Dream'

A Midsummer Night’s Dream was considered ‘too frisky and exuberant’ to grace our living room TVs and was described as a magical ‘dream of a Dream’

It’s way too frisky and exuberant for your living room, no matter how wide your screen.

And yet this is the best show I never saw at Shakespeare’s Globe. 

It made me yearn for what’s known in the trade as the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd.

Observing the usual laws of diversity, the delightful thing about it is how natural it feels. 

Ncuti Gatwa played Demetrius and Ankur Bahl starred as a gay Helenus, who was praised as a 'perfect fit' for Shakespeare's gender-fluid play

Ncuti Gatwa played Demetrius and Ankur Bahl starred as a gay Helenus, who was praised as a ‘perfect fit’ for Shakespeare’s gender-fluid play

The lovers even include a gay ‘Helenus’, and where this might warrant a groan in other worthier productions, here it’s a perfect fit with Shakespeare’s gender-fluid yarn.

On top of this, Indian ragas played on sitar lend an ethereal quality that’s a match for the enchantment of the young lovers eloping to the forest.

The acting, too, has the exuberance of a spontaneous woodland party. Ewan Wardrop’s Bottom is portrayed as an am‑dram Alan Partridge; Zubin Varla’s Fairy King swills cider from a plastic bottle; and Katy Owen’s Puck, in hot pants and ruff, squirts magic potions from a water pistol.

This is a dream of a Dream: modern, joyful and magic. 

 … But don’t forget the kids!

The Midnight Gang (cft.org.uk)

Verdict: Better in close-up

Rating:

Chichester Festival Theatre’s musical staging of David Walliams’ story about a gang of nocturnal adventurers at a dysfunctional hospital is for younger kids (aged up to about ten, in my brood’s opinion).

It seemed a little lost on the main stage in 2018 and the songs were a tad predictable. 

Jennie Dale plays a sadistic nurse in Chichester Festival Theatre’s musical staging of David Walliams’ story about a gang of nocturnal adventurers at a dysfunctional hospital

Jennie Dale plays a sadistic nurse in Chichester Festival Theatre’s musical staging of David Walliams’ story about a gang of nocturnal adventurers at a dysfunctional hospital

But here it benefits from close-ups in a quality recording. 

Led by Tom, who’s had a bump on his head in a cricket accident, the kids go on imaginary trips, including one to Antarctica with a girl who wants to be an explorer. 

But it’s the child having chemotherapy who dreams of getting back to school who wins our hearts.

The adults include a sadistic nurse (played by Jennie Dale, above) and a headmaster who fall in love. But the most fun is offered by a gran who goes one better than Mary Poppins by flying over London — naked.