I was very excited for this show as I had read the Curious tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde many years ago. I found it dark and brooding with a harsh light shone on the crimes of the so called ‘high society’ and how these crimes are forgotten out of some bizarre social construct.
This is one of the themes pulsing through the play I watched tonight. All too often an audience is expecting the revised version (I always enjoyed the James Nesbit/ Stephen Moffatt remake) but tonight we are in the cold blackness of Victorian London. Where the candlelight flickers in a never ending battle to drive away the dark.
The design and direction was excellent and the use of light and dark really created tangible atmosphere.
Phil Daniels was excellent as the lead(s) and notable mentions of the excellent cast would be Annie (played by Grace Hogg-Robinson) and the butler Poole (played by Sam Cox).
I feel why Jekyll and Hyde has been with us for so long in varying forms boils down to the notion of the so called high society having the capacity to carry out the most heinous of crimes upon the poor and the vulnerable; only to be getting away with it is as current a theme (a tragedy in itself) as there ever was.
RLS’ jibe at the aristocrats acting like they could do no wrong and victim shaming the ‘primative’, ‘dirty’ or ‘asking for it’ natures of these victims is right out of the defence for scumbags like Weinstein.
The play pulled no punches and handled the extremities of the story with context and care. The audience being challenged to look outside of old victorian London and into their own lives where monsters still reside and the evils of the world can seem powerful beyond measure.
The truth though is light can drive away the darkness. Although its never as simple as all that. I think one of the important messages RLS gave us is to actually see the darkness, to acknowledge it. Once it is faced, it can be defeated.
Jekyll and Hyde runs untill 24th March, tickets available here.
Review by Adam Willis
