By Philip Doyle
My only comfort this time of
year, before the brilliant fall colors decay into the dead gray and beige
pallor of winter, is Halloween.
There are few things better than to let go and surrender into the
haunted atmosphere of ghosts, ghouls, and stories of the macabre.
So
how do you get your goblin on? You could track down one of the local
haunted houses. That might be good. But for those of you who have
grown weary of standing in the cold for an
hour and handing over a Jackson to attend a fifteen-minute, hit-and-miss
creep show, here's better option - check out
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the John Hand Theatre. Immerse yourself into this psycho (slash)
bad-boy love story that is cleverly presented with a dash of Victorian charm.
Originally published in
1886, the “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was written by Robert Louis
Stevenson. The story is often labeled a
kind of allegory; a morality tale of what happens when the devil wins over the
better angels of our nature. It has been
adapted numerous times, usually as kind of monster story about a doctor with a
split personality.
The
Firehouse Theatre Company's presentation of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”
embraces the original novella. Adapted by Jeffery Hatcher, this is a
dark exploration
of the human psyche.
Trying
to discover the aspects of consciousness that cannot be found by physical
empirical dissection, Jekyll is driven to madness by his use of potions and
tinctures. He is a protagonist who also serves as the
antagonist, from man into monster. It is
a classic horror story that is being served up at the perfect time of the year.
The utterly charming Nils Swanson portrays Dr. Henry Jekyll. He is
a suave and smart actor. Swanson is able
to convey the tenuous balance of the brilliant doctor’s quest for knowledge,
and collapse into madness and addiction.
This is a performance that grabbed my attention, and created a sense of
time and place that made the real world disappear.
This time around, one actor
plays the good doctor, and four actors play Mr. Edward Hyde. This adds many dynamic possibilities that
director Brian J. Brooks weaves on stage.
The various incarnations of Mr. Hyde range from tortured, seductive, and just plain sadistic.
The actors playing Mr. Hyde
run the gamut of the performance scale, from quietly confident, to borderline
manic. These actors also play other
supporting characters in the story. It’s
fun to watch an actor switch from one physical stature to the next, from proper
English dialect to a broken Scottish brogue.
One example to mention is Clint
Heyn, who throws down a diverse array of characters. He can play a snippy and comical professor
dissecting a corpes, and then play a version of Hyde that is downright
creepy. As Hyde, his offer to Dr. Jekyll
to go out on a “ramble” was delectable.
Kristen Mair has an
interesting challenge playing Elizabeth Jelkes, who falls in love with Edward
Hyde. Why would anyone fall in love with
such a fiend? Mair proves to be quite
capable at providing the answer to this question.
All of the actors seem to
enjoy putting order into Dr. Jekyll’s personality disorder. They are supported in their effort by Sarah Coughlin’s
original music, which seems to sneak its way into a scene, enhancing the moment
without being intrusive. I applaud
director Brian J. Brooks, who artfully put all of the pieces together.
If you’re looking for something to put you into the Halloween mood, this should
do the trick!
