The famous story of the upstanding medic Dr Henry Jekyll and his demonic alter-ego Edward Hyde may be set in London, but it reverberates with the Gothic atmosphere of the ancient district of Scotland’s capital that sits to the south of Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile.
Where better, then, for the superb Scottish actor Forbes Masson to perform Gary McNair’s stage adaptation (in a production created originally for Reading Rep Theatre in Berkshire) than at Edinburgh’s great repertory theatre, the Royal Lyceum? Aided only by a microphone and a chair, Masson (performing on the Lyceum stage for the first time in 20 years) evokes brilliantly the intrigue, concern and horror felt by Jekyll’s friend, the lawyer Gabriel John Utterson.
At the outset, employing a sardonic wit that is typical of McNair’s supple and lively script, Utterson assures us that he is not the “good guy” of the story he is about to tell. He is not the villain either, you understand.
But, as the kind of man who enjoys a good brandy in a gentleman’s club immediately after successfully defending a murderer in court, Utterson isn’t making any claims to moral superiority. This is a good point well made, and one to which (in a clever philosophical dialogue between McNair’s text and Stevenson’s novella) we return later in the play.
Max Jones’s set (entirely dark, save for lighting designer Richard Howell’s purposeful illumination using modernistic, white neon strobes) provides Masson with a perfect, abstract void, a kind of theatrical canvas on which the actor paints theatrical pictures. This he does through his dexterous, captivating expression of a text that combines excellent, dramatic storytelling with a pleasing amalgam of the linguistic registers of McNair and Stevenson.
More than that, however, as the actor-narrator shifts between the story’s various characters, his physical performance puts one in mind of the solo shows of such celebrated monodramatists as Guy Masterson and Steven Berkoff. When, near the play’s conclusion, we finally encounter the two-in-one human paradox that is Jekyll transforming into Hyde, Masson proves to have a memorable and impressive capacity for paroxysm.
As (assisted by Richard Hammarton’s atmospheric music and sound) Masson’s Utterson takes us ever deeper into Stevenson’s story, one finds oneself caught up anew in the questions of metaphysics, science and morality that fascinated the Victorians, and continue to fixate us now in the 21st century. Simultaneously entertaining and disquieting, director Michael Fentiman’s stylish, drum-tight production is set to delight audiences on its short tour to Tayside and Stirlingshire.
Touring Perth Theatre (Jan 31 to Feb 3); Dundee Rep (Feb 7-10) and Macrobert Arts Centre, University of Stirling (Feb 15-17)
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