Theatre Review on the Play 'the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'

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The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde Written by Robert Louis Stevenson and adapted by Nick Lane, the play ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’’ is about a London Lawyer who investigates the strange events of his friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, a partially disabled scientist who creates an antidote that reveals the deepest and darkest parts of a person’s self. The play is set in the late 1800’s and is played by actors James Weaver (Dr. Henry Jekyll, Mr Edward Hyde and various other parts), Joanna Miller (Eleanor Lanyon and various other parts) and John Gully (Gabriel John Utterson, Richard Enfield, Dr. Hastings Lanyon and the Elderly Politician). It is written for three actors, two male and one female and differs from the novel in a number of ways; Jekyll is disabled and his research into neuroscience is motivated partly by his desire to rid of his disability, there is a central female character, Eleanor, married to Lanyon (Jekyll’s friend) but is in love with Jekyll and she becomes intrigued with Jekyll’s experiments. The style of the piece is dark, ominous and very serious where humour is used very lightly but only to balance it out. The main points of the story are the ideas of Good vs. Evil, Narrating and Story Telling, Relationships and morals; when to ‘draw the line’. The overall intention of the piece is to make the audience think about ethics and morality and whether there really is Good vs. Bad in our world and if so how we see the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in people. Very complex and intense acting is required in the play and many devices are used, Multi-characterization, for one plays a huge part in the play and has a huge effect. For example, James Weaver had to play 6
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