Sunday 20 March 2011

I Was A Guest At Frankenstein's Wedding...Live In Leeds

Hi everyone!

Did any of you watch the Frankensteins Wedding...Live In Leeds at 8pm last night on BBC3?


My friend's husband is the night manager at the hotel in Leeds where the cast and crew were staying, and he was given some VIP tickets to skip the queue's (of which I got two!) to the event itself, to actually participate as a wedding guest in the show!


The event was a more modern take on Mary Shelley's classic novel, and centres on the lavish society wedding of Dr Victor Frankenstein, played by Andrew Gower, to his childhood sweetheart, Elizabeth Lavenza, played by Lacey Turner.



As the fretful bride prepares for the ceremony, Victor’s Creature, played by David Harewood, makes his way through the streets of Leeds, towards the wedding.


The audience sees the world through the Creature’s eyes – how he is rejected for the way he looks and his desire to belong; how he feels when Victor breaks his promise to make him a female companion, realising his existence will continue to be lonely and loveless. He is driven to murderous revenge, to a climactic final confrontation between Creature and his creator.


Mark Williams played Victor’s father, Alphonse Frankenstein, and Jemima Rooper took the role of Justine Moritz, Elizabeth’s best friend and bridesmaid.


The performance was a combination of a play, drama,dance and musical that was filmed live in the beautiful ruins of Leed's Kirkstall Abbey last night.
The set was stunning - the Abbey itself had been transformed into Frankensteins Castle, and was lit up with strategically placed lights and projections, which created a gorgeous gothic backdrop that suited the story perfectly.


The crowd of 12 thousand attended the event in their best wedding outfits, as specified on the 'invitation' tickets, in the dress code colours of black, white, gold or silver (some people went all out, and looked amazing dressed in floor length gothic style wedding dresses!), and each person had a real role as wedding guests, to form part of a mass celebratory wedding dance, that was taught to guests both at workshops, and before the live broadcast, ready to perform live on the night -  I t really did look amazing, and the atmosphere was really electric!

There were performances from artists including Niamh Perry (finalist in the BBC's I'd Do Anything in 2008) before the show, to get the audience going!


It was an amazing event to attend, and I had a fabulous time! The acting, set and production was brilliant, really exceptional. I have since seen the recording that was on TV last night, and it really didn't  properly capture the atmosphere and brilliance of the performances played live, both by the actors, and the audience's wedding dance, which were spectacular!

Did any of you manage to bag any of the free tickets before they 'sold' out?

11 comments:

  1. It sounds like an awesome event! Bet you had a great time. I would love to do something like that.
    http://cgdn.blogspot.com

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  2. That sounds brilliant - the best thing must've been the feeling of being a tiny part of something so massive!

    K xx

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  3. It sounds like it was great!! I'm gutted I missed out on it, I live just up the road from Kirkstall Abbey and it would've been fantastic to go and see it!

    Xx Abbie xX

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  4. I watched this last night! I wish I had known about it before and been able to get tickets. I can imagine it was 100% more exciting to see it live, but I did really enjoy watching it on TV. The dance was so perfect and I love most of the actors who starred in it, was so glad to see Jemima Rooper- I loved her in asif and I must admit Lacey Turner was amazing too :)xx

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  5. Ive got it recorded to watch - cant wait to see it now looks fab! Lucky you with the tickets! Scarlett x

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  6. So so jealous! I applied for tickets to go but i didn't get any in the end. It looked like so much fun though! (:

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  7. How wonderful to be there! I missed it on TV but would have loved to see the live performance, it sounds fantastic and must have been amazing to be there. What did you wear?
    My husbands cousin is director of Frankenstein at the National Theatre with Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, they are going to do a live screening of the play at cinemas across the country on Thursday 24th March which you may be interested in.
    I must watch out for a repeat of the one in Leeds. Abby x

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  8. Em from Passion for Fashion went to it and I know she was really excited - it sounds amazing! I missed it but will try and catch it on iplayer.

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  9. How magical! I have always, ALWAYS wanted to participate in theatre this way...as an "interactive audience" memeber. Thank goodness for your hubs' connections :)

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  10. Ok, I'm sure I had already commented on this but my comment isn't there. Sounds amazing. How cool to actually be a part of the show.

    Have tagged you in a challenge on my blog love. x

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  11. it is now 2016 and l tripped over this recording via you tube when looking for work that Andrew Gowen had performed...l thought it was great to watch, seeing nobody stuff up their lines and just seeing the way they incorporated the abbey as a set..l would like to know if this production company has done anything similar since that l can find..would have loved to have been an audience participator but alas live in Australia..

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