Review: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde/Malvern Theatres

IT always seems rather strange that while the Edwardian age is traditionally portrayed as one long hot summer, the previous era is so often painted in much darker tones.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s murky journey through the twists and turns of the human mind appeared in 1885, just three years before the Jack the Ripper murders convulsed Victorian Britain.

It is precisely this juxtaposition that puts a rather frightening period topicality to Stevenson’s tale of a criminally split personality and his eventual undoing. Make no mistake; director Kate Saxon’s inspired and fabulous production is most certainly bleak, darker even than a Whitechapel alley on a winter’s night when the gas lamps have all been snuffed out.

Phil Daniels plays the man himself and most surely becomes possessed himself. He warms, or maybe that should read freezes, in the role as he slowly but surely becomes swallowed in the bottomless pit of his demonic alter ego.His appalling descent from respected man of science to leering, demented killer is both shocking and depressing to watch, although after a while you do start to yearn for him to once again drink his demonic elixir and start strutting his devilish stuff.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is compelling, gripping theatre, and perfect for a late winter’s night when candle flames may well start to flicker and demons stalk the land. Go there if you dare: it runs until Saturday (March 3).