For the period around Halloween, it is particularly acceptable to delight in gore and relish the downright disturbing.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 story of the battle between good and evil, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, wherein there is bloody murder, intrigue and the mightily unnatural, is therefore apt fare for the season of broomsticks and the undead.
Although this adaptation has a less dark story, containing elements to jolly it up for an audience somewhat younger than might be the norm and nudging it towards the 21st century, it reflects the spirit of the original.
Andrew Hobbs and David Hobbs’s reworking retains the core premise of the novel that upstanding scientist Dr Jekyll, recognising in himself the “primitive duality of man”, works away in secret to find the formula that releases his inner Lucifer, a personality that he calls Mr Hyde who eventually comes to the fore even without the potion that unleashes him.
In contrast to the depraved Hyde and obsessive Jekyll is his level-headed lawyer, Gabriel Utterson, who investigates the fatal bludgeoning of another client, Danvers Carew, to find that the murderer is Hyde.
The Hobbs have rebalanced the heavily male dramatis personae, making Jekyll’s butler a housekeeper, Mrs Poole, and giving Utterson a partner with whom to do the sleuthing in the form of Carew’s daughter, Cordelia, seeking justice in the face of police incompetence.
The pair have also engineered a first act that lays out the bones of the story and a second act that adds the flesh from Jekyll / Hyde’s version of the same events leading to a dramatic crescendo.
Purists might not approve, but none of these changes are deal breakers, although Cordelia, being conjured up by the writers, feels rather token; her character is written ghostly thin and with unlikely feistiness.
A lively score composed and played by Alistair Smith hints firmly at melodrama, silent movie dastardly villains and big moustaches to be twirled in evil glee, but the script is conveyed in a mix of styles that aren’t those.
This youthful Utterson speaks in the clipped tones of RP, whilst Cordelia, taking the initiative to advance romance, asks if they should get something to eat. A cheeky-chappy messenger breaks the fourth wall for no discernible benefit, Jekyll / Hyde channel Edmund Kean whilst Mrs Poole says every line with exhausting Lady Bracknell-esque levels of indignation.
This adaptation is not burdened by many of the heavier themes and details that can bog down more precisely faithful adaptations of the story and Andrew Hobbs, who also directs, keeps the action careering along, but he could take inspiration from Jekyll and unleash his inner control freak, pick a side and get everyone in the same play.
This is more dishevelled zombie than elegant evening dress vampire, but with enough witch’s brew, it’s more fun than an evening with a pumpkin.