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

[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...