A fine cast overcomes the shortcomings in Jeffrey Hatcher’s sparse script for “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” at Acadia Repertory Theatre in Somesville on Mount Desert Island and sends the audience home pondering the many faces evil may wear.
Based on the 1886 novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson, Hatcher focuses on the malevolent Hyde, the dark side brought out when the good physician drinks his mysterious concoction.
“One of the arguments I’ve never quite believed — and I suspect Stevenson didn’t believe it either — is that Henry Jekyll is wholly good while Edward Hyde is wholly evil,” Hatcher has said. “I’m trying to have some fun with the notion that Jekyll and Hyde play a cat-and-mouse game with each other, and with the question of just who we should be rooting for.”
That the playwright does quite well, but Hatcher gives short shrift to goodness, something we could use more of this summer.
The small stage and low ceiling at the Somesville Masonic Hall, Acadia Rep’s home since 1973, at times make the audience feel as trapped by society and circumstances as the characters do. Bernard Hope, a true Englishman, is excellent as Henry Jekyll. Hope so perfectly captures the physician’s scientific curiosity and his exacting standards that Stevenson would recognize the character he created. The actor, who performs regularly at Acadia Rep, The Grand and Penobscot Theatre Company, so touchingly portrays Jekyll’s realization of what his dark side has wrought that it is, at times, painful for the audience to watch.
Hatcher divided the role of Hyde amongst four actors, three men, portrayed in this production by David Blais, Frank Bachman and Jonathan Wells, and a woman, played by Mary Paola. They also play other characters but it as manifestations of Hyde that they are most memorable.
Blais is the most menacing, yet shows a tender side in Hyde’s romantic relationship with chambermaid Elizabeth Jelkes, portrayed by Hannah Kulus. Blais is charmingly creepy and surprisingly seductive in a sadomasochistic sort of way that is mesmerizing and frightening.
While Blais represents the sensual appetites of Hyde, Bachman is the conniving mind behind many of his machinations. He is particularly adept at showing how Hyde’s wheels are turning as he plots to avoid being discovered by Jekyll.
Acadia Rep has a strong and talented crop of interns this year and they shine in “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Wells creates several distinct and strong characters, including a detective who helps Jekyll face his Hyde demons. Wells also has a highly developed sense for comic timing and wrings laughs from Hatcher’s sometimes sardonic dialogue.
Paola, a 16-year-old Mount Desert Island High School student, and Kulus, who like Wells attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, are equally fine in their roles. Paola, who gave a nuanced and layered performance in Acadia Rep’s first show this season, “Bakersfield Mist,” is enchanting as the evil Hyde and exacting as Jekyll’s devoted servant.
Kulus gives Jelkes a dark innocence that is drawn to Hyde’s cruel sexuality. She gives the character a soul that enjoys dancing with the devil and shows the audience that even virtue can have a dark side.
The technical team of C Andrew Mayer, Jordon Johnson and Elizabeth Braley designed a set, lighting and costumes that simply but elegantly put the actors in Victorian England. Mayer’s sound design is particularly effective at underscoring the Hydes’ evil deeds and creating an unsettled mood that builds to the play’s climax.
It’s doubtful that Acadia Rep’s artistic directors has any idea that national events this summer would make timely a play about the nature of good and evil, but they have. The questions Stevenson raised in his novella seem oddly pertinent 130 years later.
“Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” runs through July 24 at Acadia Repertory Theatre in Somesville on Mount Desert Island. For information, call 244-7260 or visit acadiarep.com.