Photo credit: Amy Brown.
Please note: This review contains spoilers.
Writer Jessica Davies’ Jekyll & Hyde takes R.L Stevenson’s original novella and works with the narrative to explore female repression, morality, and psychological turning points. Her Jekyll is manipulative, sociopathic, and willing to use her sexuality as both ruse and weapon. We see a portrait of a repressed woman with a long-term illness and a deft ability to be able to control the face she shows to the world. At times, though, you long to understand more about the context of Jekyll’s illness and its origins.
Loud Mouth’s Jekyll & Hyde is a great example of what excellent, unfunded, independent theatre can be. Born of ingenuity, built from the passion and commitment of its members, and blessed with the freedom to take risks and produce work that the collective believes in.
It also means that the artists involved need to find ways to express ideas that are both frugal and impactful. Maeve Mhairi Macgregor leads a team that makes brilliant use of the found space and finds ways to make it work well for them, such as using chalk to define the worlds of the piece, the characters’ body language and precision to indicate change, and the simple act of adjusting the light bulbs to shift us into the second half.
Focused performances from the entire cast draw us in. The attention to the small but important details such as the hold of gaze by the stern nurses, the scraping of charcoal on concrete, the stiffness of the men’s body language and the use of breath and eye contact by Bryony Geeves contribute to a slick piece of theatre.
The ominous presence of Jesse Dugan as Edward and the way in which his character is used to give us an insight into the inner life of Jekyll is clever. The real monster is inside, and we can see him as he paces, stalks, embraces and confides in Jekyll.
Loud Mouth Theatre has been a brilliant contributor to the Tasmanian theatre landscape, particularly through their support of female emerging and mid-career practitioners.
This is Loud Mouth’s last show. What comes next for the individual members of this company will be much anticipated.
4 stars
Jekyll & Hyde
Presented by Loud Mouth Theatre Company
Writer: Jessica Davies after R.L Stevenson
Director: Maeve Mhairi Macgregor
Design: Maeve Mhairi Macgregor
Lighting Design: Alexander Ramsey
Sound Design/Composition: Gareth Jones
Cast: Bryony Geeves, Jess Dugan, Benjamin Winckle, Sara Pensalfini, Bella Young, Ivano Del Pio
The Goods Shed, Hobart
9-25 November 2017
