[Gayle]

A review of Jekyll and Hide


I’ll admit I went to see last night’s show mostly because I felt obliged to! I’m trying to get more people in general to go to shows at the Civic theatre and I felt that if I didn’t go and see this one I’d be a hypocrite!

I’m glad I did too. This show was professional, creative, spectacular and most of all, well acted – I was impressed.

Howard Raw chose a show that challenged the audience – it was violent, raunchy and at times almost uncomfortable to watch but that was part of its brilliance. I’m all for challenging the audience! Just because you’ve paid your money and sat down with a bag of sweets for a night out with your friends, doesn’t mean that you should be allowed to switch off.

The story, just in case anyone doesn’t know it, is relatively straight forward – Dr Jekyll wants to experiment with the ‘evil’ DNA in people and extract it so that everyone will be ‘good’. He can’t find a suitable subject so starts to experiment on himself. His ‘evil’ persona Mr Hide starts to take over and starts to kill people. One could ask though, is Mr Hide the ‘good’ side as he is trying to rid the world of all the other evil people?

There was a lot that I loved about the show – the big chorus numbers were extremely well choreographed, the only unfortunate thing was that the stage seemed too small at times. The transition between scenes really creatively done so that there was no pause or delay. Lighting was clever and evocative, I know that the lighting was professionally hired and that doesn’t always mean quality but this time it certainly did.

A few hiccups with sound but that’s just me nitpicking, it didn’t detract from the overall presentation.

The main thing that I loved though was that the acting and singing was superb – a very talented cast. Peter Norris as Jekyll/Hide blew me away with his acting particularly during the ‘confrontation’ scene when he switches backwards and forwards between Jekyll and Hide. The two ladies who Jekyll and Hide love were also excellent, with strong voices that worked well separately but also well together in harmony. The supporting cast were also strong with no weak links amongst them.

If you were hesitating about whether you should go or not – stop pfaffing around and get your ticket now.