A Sentence of Sorts

The Pseudoscientists, Act I, scene 6: Frankenstein Arrives!

We encounter Dr. Frankenstein and the Creature!

Hyde and Rachel race to the front door, expecting to see perhaps a small clan of monster hunters leaping off along the streets. Instead they are greeted by an enormous form hurtling toward them at breakneck speed. The giant skids along the street and barely manages to stop before crashing headlong into Jekyll’s house. 

This is a bit much for even Hyde to react to. He sizes up the monstrous form in front of him–a dark, humanoid mass with dank, unkempt hair and piercing yellow eyes. It doesn’t attack him but carefully opens its right arm, which has been cradled close to its chest. Protected in the creature’s hold is a man draped in sopping furs. In the dim light, it is hard to see his face, but he whispers hoarsely, “I must … see Dr. Jekyll… ." 

Hyde can’t make heads or tails of this whole situation, falling uncharacteristically silent. Rachel answers for him, "The doctor is in bed right now. I could wake him up if you–”

Hyde interrupts: “He’s not in. What do you want him for? Who are you?" 

He tries to get a better look at the strange man’s face. He squints into the darkness, making out thick round spectacles, icy blue eyes* …

Hyde draws in a sharp breath. For just an instant, we see this man’s face in an entirely different time and place. He is slumped over like now, but he is younger, his face illuminated by an icy flurry swirling around him, the landscape a blanket of white… .

And then he is back in the present. "It can’t be … ” he murmurs. But he has little time to contemplate what can and can’t be. Another man is tearing down the street on horseback, flagged by a group of rabid-looking animals. The Creature turns and takes off down the street, pursued by this new man. Without thinking, Hyde tears off after them. He cannot hope to keep pace with a giant monster and a man on horseback, so he climbs up the side of a nearby building to get a bird’s eye view of the chase.

He sees that the monster doesn’t seem to be doing very well in the face of his mounted pursuer–he looks haggard and frightened for the life of his weak master. This seems to make an impression on Hyde–that monster is full of interesting secrets, and it would be no good if that man killed him! And that’s not the only incentive for him: the man on horseback and his band of rabid animals would make more than an exciting fight. This could be just like the werewolf fight, only better!!

Before he can jump into the frey, his shadow morphs to take on the shape of Dr. Jekyll. This drastic turn of events has awoken his dozing consciousness. “What are you doing??” he demands. He is afraid Hyde will draw attention to himself–specifically Lanyon’s attention. But Hyde, caught up in the thrill of the chase, has forgotten how important it is for him to lay low. So he ignores Jekyll and takes off along the rooftops in pursuit of the Creature.

 *I’m wondering if his memory should be sparked by Frankenstein or the Creature, because the Creature is a pretty…….. distinctive design

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Meanwhile, Lanyon and his friends are losing patience with their stake-out. Lanyon wants to find other places to scope out Hyde, but Utterson and Enfield just want to go home. Lanyon insists that they must be more aggressive in their search, that Hyde must be lying low after last night’s drama. “Jekyll must have told him I’d be after him! It’s what any intelligent man would do!”

Suddenly, the creature and the rider barrel through the street right outside, rattling the entire row of houses and shattering windows. Lanyon and the others are thrown back and land in a messy heap against a wall. Lanyon is the first to recover, and he immediately stumbles into the street to see where the Creature has disappeared down the street. He brushes himself down and and puts on his most vindictive of smirks: “Then again… .”

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Hyde crouches beneath a low chimney and, when the Creature passes under his roof, leaps down to surprise his pursuer.

Unfortunately, taking on one frightened werewolf is not the same as taking on five hungry monsters. Before he can even reach the man on horseback, Hyde is pulled back in the jaws of what seems to be a winged lion. He turns to face it but is attacked by a second animal, and then a third. He barely manages to escape by climbing back to the roofs, where he stops to catch his breath.

Here he sees that the Creature is leading his pursuers in a kind of loop, so that they never stray too far from Jekyll’s house. Around the corner, Rachel is trying to beckon to the Creature, urging for him to follow her. The Creature, in his hurry, doesn’t see her, but Hyde does. He drops down into a hidden alley-way just ahead of the Creature’s path. Just as the Creature rounds the corner, Hyde helps pull him in, and the rider and beasts rush by him.

This buys them perhaps a minute of time to escape, and they run along the alley until they reach Rachel, who directs them through a back alley into a nondescript side door. “No one ever comes through here but me,” she insists. “We’ll be safe for now.”

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People are slowly filing into the streets, awoken by the sound of the chase. Lanyon and his friends run past in pursuit of the Creature, only to find him disappeared without a trace. They stop to catch their breaths, only to be nearly run over by the rider as he tears past them. While his friends seem terrified, Lanyon seems merely offended: Where was Hyde? Surely he can’t be far behind!

His friends urge him to step down, that whatever this situation is, it is out of their control now. It is time for the police to take over. 

Lanyon snorts at this. “The police! Not if I can help it.”

A large crash rings out down the street as one of the monsters barrels through a huge cart as if it were made of sticks. Lanyon cringes ever so slightly. “‘If’ being the key word here."