This new, one-actor adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous story about the human mind’s duality is pitched beautifully.
There is no expansive cast, there are no grand effects – just star actor Forbes Masson and the words of playwright Gary McNair, whose treatment of the tale foregoes grotesque transformations and magical potions to get to the horrific heart of a human unleashing their basest desires.
Originally presented by Reading Rep Theatre, the play was restaged last month by Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, and is now on tour, arriving in Dundee this week.
Directed by Michael Fentiman, its return of Masson (one half of Victor and Barry with Alan Cumming, and also an experienced stage actor) to Scottish theatres is a very welcome development.
He narrates as Gabriel Utterson, the lawyer who infamously encounters the thuggish Edward Hyde as he tramples a young girl, then has cause to believe Hyde might be blackmailing his respectable client Henry Jekyll.
Of course, that Hyde and Jekyll are the same person is a twist long since spoiler-ed, but McNair’s story finds a new tonal spin.
Masson is ‘real treat’ in leading role
It leans less on Jekyll & Hyde as a mysterious thriller, and more on the story as a sinister psychological drama, in which the motives of all involved – not least Utterson – are open to corruption and fearful complacency.
Masson is a real treat in the lead, blending a thoughtful Victorian eloquence with a real tension and occasional smog-dark humour.
Around him, Max Jones’ design and Richard Howell’s lighting comprises a raised platform and a series of sharp neon lights.
It’s a simple but effective arrangement, especially where the foreboding door to Hyde’s home is picked out in the background.
Only using the edge of the platform as an occasional perch for Masson adds the slightest awkwardness to what is a very smooth, convincing and thoroughly thoughtful piece of work.
Jekyll & Hyde is at Dundee Rep Theatre from February 7-10. Seen at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.
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