It isn't the Coat, it's the Cumberbatch.

[impulsereader]

If you can find it, go ahead and buy the Coat. Get it tailored to fit you perfectly. It won't help.

Over the last week I saw Frankenstein three times. The sequence in which I viewed the two versions is particularly germane to this discussion.

I saw, in sequence, CumberCreature - CumberVictor - CumberCreature.

After I saw the two different versions in one evening I wrote to quarryquest something along the lines of, 'I need some new television. I've been watching too much Benedict when I spend an entire two hours thinking, "Oooooooooo, Sherlock is playing a much better Victor than Johnny Lee Miller. He's also doing it in a really great series of Coats!"'

So, upon this evening's viewing when I was able to revisit the first version I'd seen armed with knowledge of the second, I discovered that Victor is given only two Coats - one near the end of the first half and another near the end of the play.

When I was watching Benedict play Victor, I was experiencing these two Coats as a completely separate character on stage, I really was - no joke. I was watching Victor and the Coat do a number on the Creature emotionally. The Coat packs a mean punch until it's reduced to pointing its gun, completely unable to fire it to kill its own Creation.

Now, before this evening when I was forced to pay some attention to Miller's Victor out of sheer boredom (guys, I'm trying not to be harsh by not really addressing the issue, but this actor made some real non-choices when playing Victor) I would have just assumed that I noted the Coat because it was Benedict and I'm used to taking note of the Coat where he is concerned. Not so. No movement. No personality. Nothing.

It's got to be the same coat. It had to have been tailored to each of these two actors by the same person.

Conclusion: Cumberbatch knows how to work the Coat - any Coat.

Comments

[quarryquest.livejournal.com]

Oh my, you really have got it bad haven't you, poor dear? Here am I rattling away inside my head working with abstract concepts and trying to theorise away why this show and this character affects me[I blame my parents for this!] and you can just happily fall in love with the actor. I envy you ;PP

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Hee! I'm actually more in love with his ability to work the coat. I actually have a bit of a coat fetish. I'm constantly seeing women in coats and thinking, 'that's a great coat. why don't I own that coat???? *significant pause* oh. right. I never go out shopping.' You can't, you see, acquire the awesome coats if you never go out looking for them. My fatal flaw - I don't shop.

Benedict is gorgeous, of course; a little too gorgeous for us mere mortals, though. ;-)

[quarryquest.livejournal.com]

Trust us to get landed with a demi-god. Is this the new Olivier I wonder?

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

He really is very good on stage. I feel he out-acted Miller in both roles while avoiding over acting either of them.

[internetname.livejournal.com]

How did you see the play? Is it available somewhere??

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Sorry to get your hopes up. As far as I know they still haven't acquired the rights to release it on dvd. As far as I can tell they occasionally play it in theaters in major metropolitan areas.

I first started hearing about it about a month ago when I started seeing mentions of it popping up on my flist. I was confused at first because I thought it was a current live production. When I saw what it actually was I was a bit 'ho hum' about it, but then everyone started talking about it and I was assailed from all sides. Finally, when one of my LJ friends who doesn't even watch Sherlock posted a mini review; and, to boot, the little arty theater which we subscribe to here announced Frankenstein as part of the next season, I threw up my hands and did a quick google. I found it was playing at my local arty movie theater.

At fandom night a ton of people had already seen it in theaters, so they seem to do it periodically.

[internetname.livejournal.com]

Thanks. There's a small possibility it might come over my way. I'll keep an eye out.

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about your and your icon while I was taking note of the Coat last night. :-)

[internetname.livejournal.com]

Ha! That's hilarious and flattering. :-)

I listened to an interview with him, and it turns out he was the one who came up with the idea of putting the red stitching around the lapel buttonhole. Seems that's a thing people who buy posh clothes do -- personalize them a bit. I think it's a brilliant touch.

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Well, your icon is clever and stylish and deserves to be taken our for an airing once in a while. :-)

I agree. If I ever take up being posh, I will be sure to do the same.

[internetname.livejournal.com]

I thought about being posh last Tuesday, but my schedule is just so swamped.

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

lol. It's a real commitment, being posh, more of a lifestyle choice than a hobby, really. Who has the time? :-)

[internetname.livejournal.com]

And I must confess, my bum is way too flat.

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

To be posh? I had no idea that was one of the criterion.

*considers her own bum*

*considers what she has just typed*

*types out an honest assessment of the possibilities of her bum proving posh*

*decides to delete honest assessment*

*considers seriously how much fun she has been having since beginning this journal and having the opportunity to type things like, *considers her own bum**

*smiles madly*

[internetname.livejournal.com]

You're lucky. Considering the un-poshness of my bum just makes me want ice-cream and beer, which, of course, contributes to the salt-flat-like flatness of said bum. You know how Sherlock has a fabulous bum in that scene in "A Scandal in Belgravia" when he's twirling around on the CIA agent? Well, imagine the opposite of that bum. I could serve up dinner for four on my bum.

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

I really hope you get to see the CumberVictor version of Frankenstein. Okay, there's no getting around it, this is all sorts of wrong in the context of the scene, so I'm going to leave the context out and if you do see it, please forgive me.

In the final Coat, the wedding coat with ankle-length tails, CB ends up on a bed with his bum in the air - white pants framed by blue tails - filmed from directly above. It's a minute and a half of Benedict's bum perfectly highlighted and framed - completely unintentionally. It is the height of ridiculousness.

[internetname.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you for the image that is going to keep me from sleeping properly tonight.

But speaking of context, is it true as the monster he's buck naked on stage for 15 minutes?

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

No. Not quite. He wears a nearly-flesh-coloured loincloth for the first bit of the show. I have no idea how long the sequence lasts, but it is long and detailed because it is his portrayal of the newly-born creature learning to walk. He is quite naked, though not buck. After that sequence he has a cloak which he discards at times, so there is more just-loincloth time as well.

*disclaimer* He's honestly an extremely talented stage actor. Even when fully clothed.

[internetname.livejournal.com]

Okay, thanks for clarifying that for me. I mean, everyone keeps talking about how he's naked, and I'm wondering how anyone's paying any attention to show while he's running around stage starkers. A flesh-colored loincloth makes a lot more sense.

Of course he's a great actor. But...bow-bow-chicka-wow-wow nevertheless.

[k-for-kerfuffle.livejournal.com]

They were both buck naked in the play on stage as the creature, only for the video version they donned loincloths to spare foreign audience's sensitivities.

[internetname.livejournal.com]

Iz ded from teh guh.

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Thanks for the info. That must have been - interesting? - there was a lot of jumping around and such. Kudos to both actors.

[k-for-kerfuffle.livejournal.com]

According to BC the worst was that he was apparently partially rubbed raw from all the crawling around on the floor. ;-)

[impulsereader.livejournal.com]

I can see that, lots of floor action, lots of running around, honestly this had to have been one of the worst possible roles for this sort of thing. Here's an actual practical reason for their switching off nights...