Does good and evil exist within us all? In our Dr Jekyll’s is there not always a Mr Hyde waiting to advance out of the darkness and betray the thoughts we keep secret from even ourselves?
Forbes Masson perfectly captures the destructive dichotomy between the famous Jekyll and Hyde in this arresting one-person play, written by Gary McNair and masterfully directed by Michael Fentiman, that will have you questioning the difference between what is right and what is easy.
Masson moves about the stage amid a delicately arranged set of lights; one surrounding the stage akin to a picture frame, another encircling a smaller stage and the most crucial being that which denominates the door leading to Hyde’s property. Additionally, an array of lights run down the side of the stage, as well as those lighting the fictional Mr John Utterson from behind, rendering him occasionally merely a silhouette. Their operation was the mastery of the performance, designed by Richard Howell to impeccable precision, shifting between complete darkness and striking brilliance depending on the tone of the speech or suspense of the moment. Dry ice crafted an obscurity that transcended both the plot and the actor, with the notion of good and evil existing in us all, applied even to the staging.
The dexterity of the performance is most notable when Utterson, on whom your eyes are fixed for the entirety of the performance, speaks from directly in front of the lit door. As its brightness increases, the image of the door becomes burnt into the retina, so when the audience closed their eyes, the outline remains. Like Hyde within Jekyll, it lingers beyond attempted banishment.
The artistic and stylistic choices of designer Max Jones paired with Forbes Masson’s dextrous performance creates a production fuelled by nerve, suspense and anticipation. It should be noted, however, that the classic text has been reinvented for this stage thriller and, especially for the opening analysis, a waning concentration may leave the disengaged viewer slightly out of the loop.
The show is opened meta-theatrically, with John Utterson informing the audience that, while there is a definitive ‘bad guy’, he is not the ‘good guy’ of the performance, a moral judgement that is chillingly illustrated in a calculated finale.
Despite being a solo performance, the 75-minute embellished monologue is very visually stimulating. Techniques such as a bowler hat passed from hand to hand, or braces on or off the shoulder denominated different characters in conversation, allowing the viewer insight into the world beyond the psyche of one, a mind which, while rational, is damned by curiosity.
This interpretation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale of duality is a feast of captivation and suspense and will leave the viewer unsure of the difference between light and dark, on stage and in themselves.
Image by Mihaela Bodlovic provided via Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh Press Release