Review: Jekyll & Hyde
Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
‘I am not the good guy…’ insists Utterson in the opening lines of Gary McNair’s adaption of Jekyll & Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous Gothic novella, which was first presented at Reading Rep last year.
They are spoken by Forbes Masson, one of Scotland’s greatest stage actors, who returns to the production and for the next 70 minutes regales an often rapt audience with the familiar tale of the ‘cursed’ doctor.
Much of the original story remains in this retelling, the duality of human nature, the graphic trampling of a child, the murder of Sir Danvers Carew and Utterson’s initial confusion at the unusual behaviour of his long time friend, all are there, but there’s something missing.
This Jekyll’s transformation requires no laboratory, no nature-changing serum, just a symbolic ‘grotesque door’ to channel the doctor’s opposing personalities. It make for a somewhat anaemic script that becomes more a reflection on friendship, or rather the depths of a friendship that allows excuses to be and a blind eye turned to the unacceptable. Guilt by complicity, no less.
As Masson, alone in the spotlight throughout, proves mercurial in his ability to slip from one character to another and back again, using minimal props to aid the transitions, there are times he holds the audience in enthralled silence, others where his charm and cheeky wit just as quickly elicit laughter as he relishes the words he has been given to say.
Masson understands the spell a storyteller can cast but deserves a script with more drama to convey - McNair’s adaptation opens nicely and finishes with thoughtful flair, but wains along the way, failing to hold the attention as the expected degree of Grand Guignol is eschewed in favour of retrospection.
Director Michael Fentiman approachs the piece with light strokes, and uses Max Jones’ clean, neon-framed box set to great effect while Richard Howell’s oh, so perfectly conceived lighting design enhances the storytelling beautifully, as does Richard Hammarton’s unobtrusive score.
There is much to like above this reworking of Jekyll and Hyde but even with Masson, (who did indeed turn out to be a ‘good guy’ being on fine form), the impact left by Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde should really be so much more.
Runs until 27 January. Tickets here
