Celebrating Frankenstein’s anniversary at The Venue

The Venue and Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) in Lincoln are working in partnership to celebrate the bicentenary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

The Venue, BGU’s on-campus cinema, will be hosting two special events in 2018 to mark 200 years since the novel was first published in January 1818.

The first event, ‘Frankenstein for Adults’, takes place on Wednesday 31 January and features a back-to-back screening of two classic movies with a panel discussion.

John Whale’s 1931 feature film Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff will be shown in The Venue before Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 adaptation Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

The panel discussion to conclude the evening will feature Sibylle Erle, Reader in English Literature at BGU, Marc Hanheide, Reader in Computer Science at the University of Lincoln and John Rimmer, Senior Lecturer in PGCE Secondary, Art and Design at BGU.

The discussion will explore the differences between the films and the text and attempt to understand how the representation of ‘the Monstrous’ has changed over time.

Frankenstein wanted to create a new species but could never imagine the consequences. The panel will also explore how science and technology have improved our lives.

The second event, ‘Frankenstein for Children’, takes place on Saturday 3 February 2018. This event combines a showing of Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie with a craft workshop.

The workshop will invite children to explore the humorous side of Frankenstein while having fun making monsters.

The workshop will be run by Andrew Dickenson, Senior Lecturer, Leader of New Technologies and Computing, horror fan and genre researcher at BGU, and Sibylle Erle, Reader in English Literature at BGU.

Booking is now open for both events on The Venue’s website.