Danny Boyle's 'Frankenstein' on National Theatre Live

Oscar winning director Danny Boyle has returned to his stage roots with a theatrical adaptation of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein." The Royal National Theatre is staging the production in London, but "Frankenstein" has been broadcast to cinemas and theaters through National Theatre Live.

Boyle harnessed a pertinent thematic element in Shelley's landmark novel by alternating the roles of Victor Frankenstein and his monstrous creation. BBC Drama darling, Benedict Cumberbatch and Boyle's cult hero collaborator, Jonny Lee Miller ("Trainspotting") switch roles for each performance. This inhabits the story's creation myth in that creator and creation are intimately bound in a dance of destructive.

Almost every creation myth is in essence a dance of destruction; the inevitable fall from paradise man is cursed with from birth. With Shelley's "Frankenstein," the Greek myth of Prometheus is inherent in the title, "The Modern Prometheus," but she was also heavily influenced by John Milton's "Paradise Lost." With Prometheus the creation myth involves the Greek titan stealing fire from the Gods to create man and "Paradise Lost" is the epic poem that retells the fall of Adam & Eve.

With playwright Nick Dear's adaptation of "Frankenstein," directed by Boyle, it is surely the first time the monster has cited Milton in verse. Boyle and his dynamic acting duo have done for the monster and his maker what Kenneth Branagh and Robert De Niro tried in their 1994 film. Boyle has humanized Frankenstein's creation to reflect the very essence of what Shelley conveyed.

In a "Word & Film" interview Boyle said, "The show sort of rescues the book from what the movies have done...They've truly distorted the story." Think of Boris Karloff and the numerous "Frankenstein" spin-offs that have ingrained the image of a big misunderstood lug that emerges murderous. In essence, Shelley's feminist overtones seem to imply that man, and not woman, is murderous by nature. A vile wretch on this planet recreating itself to do nothing but destroy, while women try to create through love.

Perhaps years of cinematic interpretations of "Frankenstein" have been doing what movies do best: cut to the chase. Though, the films of Danny Boyle have always embraced what theater does best by revealing the inner journey of its characters. This creates a narrative that relays the notion that life is in the journey, not the destination.

Most movie adaptations are concerned with the climatic question of will Dr. Frankenstein destroy the monster before the monster kills him? Boyle's "Frankenstein" is more an exploration of how the creature learns destructive vengeance; an Oedipus journeying to kill his maker. The play has more in common thematically with Mel Brook's classic comedy, "Young Frankenstein" than any horror adaptation. The play's Karl Johnson ("The Illusionist," "Hot Fuzz") also gives us a charismatic blind man (De Lacey) unseen since Gene Hackman in "Young Frankenstein."

Evident in Boyle's production is a Victor Frankenstein embodying man's obsessive attempt at perfection, no matter the consequences. Conversely, women nourish through the process of creation in an act of imperfect love; a mother's unconditional love. This is also essential in honestly adapting Mary Shelley's innovative novel and not just planting women as helpless victims.

This is often found in the performance of another Boyle collaborator, the vivacious Naomie Harris ("28 Days Later"), who plays Elizabeth, Frankenstein's bride. The play climaxes with Elizabeth composed symbolically as a woman trapped between the destructive tango of man and his creation; Eve trapped between God and Adam; Pandora between Zeus and Prometheus.

Boyle's "Frankenstein" is running at the Royal National Theatre until May 2, 2011 and there are select theaters screening the broadcast around the world. The production reaffirms Danny Boyle as nothing short of brilliant, retaining a prowess for the intimacy of live theater, untainted by cinema's voyeuristic detachment.