Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Gothic chiller about a murderous victim of split personality has been adapted many times.
It’s been staged for film, television and even as a musical, but now comes in a fresh hybrid, thanks to National Theatre of Scotland.
Set to be broadcast to venues across the UK from Edinburgh’s Leith Theatre, this version of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde combines live action and film.
Impressive Scottish cast
It’s an original take on the livestreams that became a regular lifeline for culture vultures during the pandemic.
This version is the brainchild of director Hope Dickson Leach, who won a Scottish Bafta for screenwriting with her 2016 debut feature The Levelling.
It also stars Kirkcaldy-born Lorn Macdonald as Gabriel Utterson, Jekyll’s concerned friend who investigates his relationship with the nefarious Hyde.
Opposite him, NTS regular Henry Pettigrew (The Danish Girl, Guilt) plays Jekyll, while elsewhere an impressive Scottish cast includes Ann Peebles (River City, Shetland) and veteran performer David Hayman.
While only 29 years old, Macdonald can hold his own among such a glittering company.
From Trainspotting to Jekyll & Hyde
He played the central character Mark Renton in a 2016 adaptation of Trainspotting at Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre and starred as Spanner in the 2019 film on nineties rave culture Beats.
Jekyll & Hyde, though, presents a different challenge, he admits.
“It really is combining both mediums down the middle,” Macdonald says. “[With] the amount to learn and the spontaneity of theatre mixed with the technicality and subtleties of film, it’s tough but oddly liberating.”
Dickson Leach is also bringing her own twists to the plot: despite being himself born in Edinburgh, the Treasure Island author set this novella in London.
The director has chosen instead to place the story in Stevenson’s home city and given added depth to Macdonald’s part, the actor reveals.
‘Edinburgh fits like a glove’
“Without giving anything away, this production’s Utterson is not just the audiences guide through the mystery, but a man who must battle with his own Hyde along the way,” he says.
“Setting it in Edinburgh fits like a glove. In a lot of ways, I think it makes more sense here: it’s got the class divide and the Gothic architecture, but contained in a smaller city.
“I was immediately interested after reading the script and was excited by the prospect of working with Hope. I love her passion towards such an ambitious project.
!The cast and crew are really talented, as well as being just a good group of people to spend long hours with.”
The first of its kind
NTS believe this production is the first as-live production, created and set in Scotland, to be screened in cinemas, before it is edited into a film set to be broadcast next year by Sky Arts.
In a remarkable undertaking, Leith Theatre has been transformed into a film set, some of which the live audience will pass through on the way to their seats.
In the auditorium itself, the audience over three nights this weekend witness up close the action set in key locations such as Jekyll’s laboratory created on stage, peering though windows like voyeurs.
Mainly, though, they will view events filmed elsewhere in the building screened live, along with pre-filmed material of more elaborate sequences. This will allow the cast to move from one set to another in good time.
Moving to their seats through the sets created in this historic venue should certainly add to the atmosphere, though the theatre does come with one main disadvantage, Macdonald admits.
“It’s cold, but brilliant,” he says. “The way the team have turned such a beautiful building in to so many sets is really impressive and transports you back to 1870.”
On Sunday, those attending venues such as Dundee’s Odeon and DCA, the Dunfermline Odeon and The Birks in Aberfeldy, will see the results of filming from the first night, Friday, with encore screenings planned for the next week.
The live audience are advised to bring warm clothing, including hats, gloves, scarves and even blankets. Cinema-goers can expect chills of a different kind.
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde – Live From Leith Theatre screens in cinemas from February 27.
See https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/events/jekyll-hyde-cinema
