The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Live from Leith Theatre February 2022 Review
‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Live from Leith Theatre’ will be on screen in cinemas across the country, but if the title seems a little odd, then a little clarification is required before going into the review of this film.
This production/film is a multi discipline production, produced by National Theatre of Scotland and Selkie Productions in association with Screen Scotland and Sky Arts. A performance of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde took place in Leith Theatre (February 25, 26, 27) with an audience present. During this hybrid performance actors moved around locations inside and outside the theatre with cameras screening their performances live on screen in the main auditorium. Some additional location scenes were also used. This “cinema” production is edited from this last “Live” theatre performance.
The story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is probably one of Robert Louis Stevenson’s best known works and it has been told and adapted so many times in films, television, theatre, and written word that you have to marvel at the seemingly endless permutations that this story is capable of being told in. Perhaps the reason for this is that the story of the beast within us all is a very old one, going back to Shakespeare and even far further back in time. That very notion of beauty being good and evil being ugly goes back to the ancient Greeks (and maybe even earlier) and is still shaping so much of our thought patterns thousands of years later.
Is this a good re-telling of a familiar story then? In parts yes and in parts no has to be my honest answer to that question. Part of the problem for me starts with the attempt to force two unconnected stories and time-lines into one – the 1880s that the original story is set in and the, with the benefit of hindsight, folly of trying to build a National Monument on Calton Hill in the late 1820s. The end result is a story line that not only detracts from the original, but also for me dilutes it somewhat. Moving the original setting from London to Edinburgh does not bother me at all as Edinburgh has some superb period locations and that gothic feel required for this story. Whether the classic art deco interiors of Leith Theatre are a good location is in doubt, but this was a production at Leith Theatre, and anything that brings life back into this theatre and highlights what a wonderful building this is is fine by me. A rather too early use of telephone styles for the period also indicates that we are in a later period than the 1880s of the original story.
As always, the performance skills of the National Theatre of Scotland team are at the high standard I have come to expect from them with our principal cast comprising
Henry Pettigrew - Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde
Lorn Macdonald - Utterson
Tam Dean Burn – Councillor Begg
Alison Peebles – Poole
David Hayman – Sir Danvers Carew
With no slight to anyone else, Lorn Macdonald always seems to stand out and a big part of that is due to his chameleon-like ability to inhabit the personality of any character that he chooses to play onstage (or in film).
There are of course many aspects of our characters’ inner selves to be examined here, and oddly, Dr Jekyll has my sympathies here as his evil alter ego Mr Hyde is actually now completely out of his control. It is for me the other evils in this film that are more frightening as they are so real and still such a part of our society and the ruthless pursuit of exploitation of his workforce for only greater profits, and his remorseless replacement of men by machines makes Sir Danvers Carew identifiable with so many capitalists throughout history and of present times. For me, Utterson (Lorn Macdonald) is the real villain of this story and the subtle and dramatic changes in his character throughout this story (all performed with insight and skill) give us a glimpse into just how dark a human being can become whilst still retaining an air of respectability to all of those around them.
From a purely technical viewpoint, this film conceived and directed by Hope Dickson Leach has much going for it, and the choice to film in black and white is the right one here as it adds much to the gothic horror feeling of this story. Somehow, so many of us see the this period in time in black and white in our mind’s eye. This black and white choice also gives that early cinema feel of so many of those classic black and white films of the day – Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman etc - and the choice to still be splitting our cinematic screening into different Acts (something still in use in 1960s television shows too) adds to that nostalgic period fell. Performance-wise, this is still a hybrid film as this is clearly a “theatrical performance” on film rather than a “film performance” and that all actually works for me as the theatrical backgrounds of so many of our early film actors was still clearly showing in many of the original classic black and white films of the 1920s and 30s. Obviously, coming from a live theatrical performance, much of this production has also been filmed in this style. Trimming the opening curtain times down considerably would be a good idea though.
Taking everything into account, this is an ambitious hybrid event that has in the end produced a film that captures much of the flavour and charm of those horror films of the early 20th century.
Review by Tom King (c) 2022
ARTS REVIEWS EDINBURGH
This production/film is a multi discipline production, produced by National Theatre of Scotland and Selkie Productions in association with Screen Scotland and Sky Arts. A performance of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde took place in Leith Theatre (February 25, 26, 27) with an audience present. During this hybrid performance actors moved around locations inside and outside the theatre with cameras screening their performances live on screen in the main auditorium. Some additional location scenes were also used. This “cinema” production is edited from this last “Live” theatre performance.
The story of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is probably one of Robert Louis Stevenson’s best known works and it has been told and adapted so many times in films, television, theatre, and written word that you have to marvel at the seemingly endless permutations that this story is capable of being told in. Perhaps the reason for this is that the story of the beast within us all is a very old one, going back to Shakespeare and even far further back in time. That very notion of beauty being good and evil being ugly goes back to the ancient Greeks (and maybe even earlier) and is still shaping so much of our thought patterns thousands of years later.
Is this a good re-telling of a familiar story then? In parts yes and in parts no has to be my honest answer to that question. Part of the problem for me starts with the attempt to force two unconnected stories and time-lines into one – the 1880s that the original story is set in and the, with the benefit of hindsight, folly of trying to build a National Monument on Calton Hill in the late 1820s. The end result is a story line that not only detracts from the original, but also for me dilutes it somewhat. Moving the original setting from London to Edinburgh does not bother me at all as Edinburgh has some superb period locations and that gothic feel required for this story. Whether the classic art deco interiors of Leith Theatre are a good location is in doubt, but this was a production at Leith Theatre, and anything that brings life back into this theatre and highlights what a wonderful building this is is fine by me. A rather too early use of telephone styles for the period also indicates that we are in a later period than the 1880s of the original story.
As always, the performance skills of the National Theatre of Scotland team are at the high standard I have come to expect from them with our principal cast comprising
Henry Pettigrew - Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde
Lorn Macdonald - Utterson
Tam Dean Burn – Councillor Begg
Alison Peebles – Poole
David Hayman – Sir Danvers Carew
With no slight to anyone else, Lorn Macdonald always seems to stand out and a big part of that is due to his chameleon-like ability to inhabit the personality of any character that he chooses to play onstage (or in film).
There are of course many aspects of our characters’ inner selves to be examined here, and oddly, Dr Jekyll has my sympathies here as his evil alter ego Mr Hyde is actually now completely out of his control. It is for me the other evils in this film that are more frightening as they are so real and still such a part of our society and the ruthless pursuit of exploitation of his workforce for only greater profits, and his remorseless replacement of men by machines makes Sir Danvers Carew identifiable with so many capitalists throughout history and of present times. For me, Utterson (Lorn Macdonald) is the real villain of this story and the subtle and dramatic changes in his character throughout this story (all performed with insight and skill) give us a glimpse into just how dark a human being can become whilst still retaining an air of respectability to all of those around them.
From a purely technical viewpoint, this film conceived and directed by Hope Dickson Leach has much going for it, and the choice to film in black and white is the right one here as it adds much to the gothic horror feeling of this story. Somehow, so many of us see the this period in time in black and white in our mind’s eye. This black and white choice also gives that early cinema feel of so many of those classic black and white films of the day – Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman etc - and the choice to still be splitting our cinematic screening into different Acts (something still in use in 1960s television shows too) adds to that nostalgic period fell. Performance-wise, this is still a hybrid film as this is clearly a “theatrical performance” on film rather than a “film performance” and that all actually works for me as the theatrical backgrounds of so many of our early film actors was still clearly showing in many of the original classic black and white films of the 1920s and 30s. Obviously, coming from a live theatrical performance, much of this production has also been filmed in this style. Trimming the opening curtain times down considerably would be a good idea though.
Taking everything into account, this is an ambitious hybrid event that has in the end produced a film that captures much of the flavour and charm of those horror films of the early 20th century.
Review by Tom King (c) 2022
ARTS REVIEWS EDINBURGH