“Some day…after I am dead, you may perhaps come to learn the right and wrong of this. I cannot tell you.” -Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
A quote from the original Jekyll and Hyde, that may come to mean more to you, if you see The Young Rep production of Jekyll and Hyde. Not an adaptation, nor an interpretation, but a continuation of the Robert Louis Stevenson novella, that picks up after the death of Dr Jekyll and focuses on his widow, Harriet, a year after his passing.
The Young Rep are a group of younger actors, backed by a professional production crew. For Jekyll and Hyde there are 17 cast members, all under the age of 18. Most play a number of different roles with only Niamh Franklin (Harriet Jekyll), Sophie Mae Reynolds (Lady Hyde) and Ella Kirk (Florence – a new voice in the tale) not pulling double duties in the performance.
The first half is purely based in Victorian London, following the frustrated and irate Mrs Hyde. She is struggling: struggling to meet societies expectations of her grief, struggling to understand the death of her husband, struggling to find her place back in life, struggling with the place in society her gender gives her. She finds her husbands work, continues it and unleashes the darkly charming Lady Hyde upon an unsuspecting male population of deepest darkest London.
This is a young and inexperienced cast, and it shows: there are some hesitant performances, some tripping of lines, some not quite convincing dialogues. But there are also here, some absolutely wonderful performances. Peter Harrison, who takes on the ore villainous roles excels. His voice booms across the room, and his face expresses disdain, anger and arrogance perfectly. We’ve seen Peter before, as an understudy in The Old Rep’s production of Pinocchio, and its brilliant to see him again, in a production that is sure to get a lot of eyes on it. Sophie Mae Reynolds gives a confident performance, far in advance of her 17 years, looking like she was born into the role of Lady Hyde, the vengeful anti-hero that tears a trail of blood and retribution across the slums and bordello’s of London.
The stage design is excellent: The dressing is perfect gothic fodder, and a palette of black and orange is used throughout, linking major cast members and props. At some points, we see into the back stage of The Rep’s stage, with light and shadow creating a beautifully stark backdrop that fits the mood of the play perfectly. The lighting is excellent throughout. Long shadows of window frames fall menacingly across the stage. Green, red and orange lighting pick out details of the settings, and everywhere there is darkness inviting you in.
The script is very much of two halves. The first is more straightforward and traditional: a gothic tale of murder and excess in gothic Victorian London. After the interval we are invited to a new setting: present day London, and a police interview room. The timelines mix, and the issue of women’s rights echoes across both periods. The play has a message, a relevant and current message, and it uses the take of Mrs Jekyll and Lady Hyde to parallel the struggles of the Victorian suffragettes with the activists of the #metoo era.
Jekyll and Hyde is a brave attempt at reaching an audience with a new message wrapped up in a familiar and venerable tale. A lot of the time it works. Some of the time it falls a bit short. But this is a production worth seeing, with passion, effort and ambition from its young cast. A few of them, I think we shall see much more of as the years go on.
Jekyll and Hyde is running until the 27 April. Our night was full, and I expect others will be as well. The Rep are also running a promotion where some tickets are only £5 for people aged 16-30 who have joined Rep Preview Club (free to join), which is a brilliant way to be able to see theatre. Check online for details of which shows have this availability.
Disclaimer: We were invited along to the press screening of this show. Photography by Graeme Braidwood