Mull Theatre, On Tour November 2004

Kevin Lennon as Hyde and Beth Marshall as Sophie © Douglas Robertson

FOR MANY, Robert Louis Stevenson’s split personality novella is a Hammer-horror potboiler of titillatory intent. For 1970s pop star turned entrepreneur Paul Nicholas, it’s a musical, but let’s not go there.

Mercifully, for Mull Theatre it’s an intelligent inquiry into a schizophrenic state which goes beyond Victorian gothic. Using two actors to delineate the two faces of good and evil is a masterstroke, even though things aren’t exactly black and white in Alasdair McCrone and Robert Paterson’s brand new adaptation.

With Alan Steele’s mild-mannered doctor already an eccentric loner with ideas on immortality considered odd enough to see him all but ostracised by his peers, a needy  penchant for prostitutes doesn’t help his cause. Neither does making a clumsy pass at his brainy maid turned assistant.

His alter ego, meanwhile, played by Kevin Lennon, is a weasely coward who vents his spleen on women in an altogether more explicit manner. Such are the psycho-sexual dysfunctions apparent in a production that, while far from spectacular, exposes the seamier back roads of the human mind in a hauntingly atmospheric manner.

With Beth Marshall lending solid support as the more feminine polar opposites – from nice girl with ambition to tart with a heart – this Jekyll & Hyde takes a walk on the dark side that gives what is often perceived as a hoary old classic a sparky injection of chemically enhanced life.

Jekyll and Hyde is on tour at the following venues:
Durness Hall, Durness, Monday 1 November 2004
Lyth Arts Centre, Lyth, Tuesday 2-Wednesday 3 November 2004
Invergordon Arts Centre, Invergordon, Thursday 4 November 2004
Glenmoriston Millenium Hall, Glenmoriston, Friday 5 November 2004
Birnam Institute, Dunkeld, Saturday 6 November 2004
Dundee Rep, Dundee, Wednesday 10-Saturday 13 November 2004
Gibson Community Centre, Garelochead, Monday 15 November 2004
Cairndow Millenium Hall, Cairndow, Tuesday 16 November 2004
Campbeltown, Wednesday 17 November 2004
Ramsay Hall, Port Ellen, Islay, Thursday 18 November 2004
Ardrishaig Public Hall, Ardrishaig, Friday 19 November 2004
Easdale Hall, Easdale, Saturday 20 November 2004
Arainn Shuaineirt (The Sunart Centre), Strontian, Monday 22 November 2004
Mallaig and Morar Community Centre, Mallaig, Tuesday 23 November 2004
Corran Halls, Oban, Thursday 25 November 2004
Bunessan Hall, Isle of Mull, Friday 26 November 2004
Aros Hall, Tobermory, Isle of Mull, Saturday 27 November 2004

© Neil Cooper, 2004