A dark and menacing look into the duality of man
Jekyll and Hyde, produced by Broken Wheel Productions, and based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, follows Dr Jekyll as he works to find a way to separate the good and evil in a person, with disastrous results. Set against a backdrop that beautifully presents the dark and menacing story, this was a great experience overall, with wonderful performances from the actors being let down slightly by a production that felt a little empty at times.
The performances of (what appeared to be) the three main characters – Jekyll/Hyde, Emma, and Lucy – were very good. Tristan Hood gave a wonderful performance as both the upstanding gentleman Dr Jekyll and the menacing beast Mr Hyde, easily switching between the two personalities with excellent physical and vocal changes. The performance of this character could make or break the overall production with how central he is, and on this occasion was incredible to watch. The other, smaller characters did, at times, fade into the background, though they were performed well by the actors and this was simply due to the number of different characters introduced in a short amount of time.
Musically the production was outstanding, with the large orchestra and great vocal performances really heightening the emotions and atmosphere of the story. Nothing negative can be said about the performance in this area at all, something which I was very pleased about.
The scenes in the “Red Rat” club were incredibly impactful in this production specifically due to the young age of the performers, due to it being a student production. The scenes felt seedy and uncomfortable to watch in a captivating way, which made the contrast between the lives of those working in the club and those part of “proper” society even more clear – possibly an unintended effect, but something which was very effective in highlighting the main theme of the story: the separation (or lack of) good and evil in a person.
The only real negative for me was the mixed level of choreography during songs: many songs involved only one or two characters, and came across naturally as conversations or a character dealing with their own personal circumstance. The few ensemble numbers, however had a lot of heavily choreographed, synchronised dance moves from all characters, which came across as slightly jarring and with a very different tone to the rest of the musical. This left the scenes with fewer actors onstage feeling somewhat empty, despite the detailed sets and good performances. Of course, this could have been something carried over from a professional production of the musical that I was unaware of, and no scenes were unenjoyable, just with differing levels of energy.
In all, the production was great and the performances excellent to watch. The young age of the actors, when combined with the subject matter, really highlighted the good vs. evil core of the story, and the musical performances were outstanding, though some decisions unfortunately led to the story feeling slow at times.