M I N E R VA
T H E N E W S L E T T E R O F K E LV I N S I D E A C A D E M Y
W i n ter 2 0 1 2
Jekyll and Hyde Murder! Murder! Electric performances by the cast of Jekyll and Hyde, the musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella ‘Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’, took us into the dark and dangerous places of the human mind. The opening words of John Utterson, played with sombre and subtle intelligence by Gavin Hughes, warned audiences of the impending transformations of mind and soul. So it was that we were transported between elegant mansions and fashionable receptions to a nightmarish underworld of asylums, gin parlours,
cruelty and sin. By using three actors for the parts of Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde, this production embraced the concept of multiple personalities with flair and imagination. Andrew Dickson took us on Jekyll’s descent into madness, his increasing edginess and temper reflecting the good doctor’s failure to understand the torturous changes coming over him. He was a noble man of science, romantic leading man and a soul utterly lost in hell. Joseph Gilius as Hyde was the nemesis par excellence, full of predatory animal passion and sinister, unpredictable malevolence. His energy in “I feel alive” excited the audiences in the Gilchrist Theatre and their expectation of terrible things to come. The duet “Dangerous Game” with Lucy, played by Rachel Cunningham, was charged with emotional intensity and remorseless physical threat. We were taken through an awful torture as they moved together and pulled apart, Hyde capable of snapping her in two at any moment. In playing both Jekyll and Hyde, Peter Cushley was masterly, delivering “This is the Moment” with power and “Confrontation” with precise control and timing.