The monster reconstructed for the stage: Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein

Since its first publishing in 1818, Shelley’s Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus has been in close relationship first with the stage in the XIXth century, and then in the XXth with the cinema; due to this bond Frankenstein’s monster has exceeded its literary origin and has continued to be present in popular imagery until the present day. This character has been recreated in the stage and cinema though almost two centuries, embodying and reflecting the particular point of view of each age cconcerning the risks of playing god and the monsters that come of it. Frankenstein’s creature first appeared on the stage in1823, in Peake’s dramatization, and due to the success of the play the novel had a second edition; in this way the stage has helped to maintain this monster in existence. In 2011, famed British film director Danny Boyle staged a new dramatization of Mary Shelley’s classic for the National Theatre of London making use of contemporary stage technology. He thus managed to animate this classic monster, presenting it in a realistic, frightening and human way, in the theatrical medium whose extinction had been widely heralded yet which also continues to move.