Village Theatre Waterdown

One of the things that the theatre does really well of course is to scare us; thrillers are a mainstay of community theatre companies locally. There is a very long theatrical tradition going all the way back to the days of Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe of giving us a number of bloody and gory thrillers, that explore the darker parts of the human existence.

Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish writer famous for works such as TREASURE ISLAND and KIDNAPPED, also penned in 1886 a short novella called THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE. It is about a London lawyer, Gabriel John Utterson, who investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll and the misanthropic Mr. Hyde. In a twist ending, it is revealed that Jekyll and Hyde were the same person, and that Jekyll had regularly transformed himself into Hyde by drinking a serum.

It is a “classic tale of depravity, lust, love and horror that emphasizes the suspense and the story of Hyde in particular. On the fog-bound streets of Victorian-era London, Henry Jekyll’s experiments with exotic “powders and tinctures” have brought forth his other self – Edward Hyde, a sensualist and villain free to commit the sins Jekyll is too civilized to comprehend.” The story explores the central idea of the split personality, the Fraudian concept that within a seemingly meek and mild exterior, sometimes lurks a horrific and sadistic alter-ego; a sadistic serial murderer, who prays upon the innocent and leaves bodies and trauma in its wake.

When the book was first published in the UK in 1886 almost immediately there were two competing stage adaptations, an American one commissioned by the German actor Daniel Bandmann and a British one, that took the stage starring the actor Richard Mansfield who performed it until his death in 1907.

Dr. Jekyll has unwittingly unleashed a morally depraved beast of a man onto the dark streets of 1883 London. Jekyll races against time to save the beautiful Elizabeth and the men, women and children of London from the villainy of the unhinged Mr. Hyde. The story has been widely adapted for stage and screen many times in the past 140 years; I'm particularly fond of the Hammer film versions of the late '60s early 1970s starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee.

Performed out of the Memorial Hall; Waterdown Village Theatre is presenting a 2008 stage adaptation by the Broadway playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, who by coincidence is the same writer who also had a local production of Henry James's ghost story THE TURN OF THE SCREW; mounted just this past month in Beamsville.

Directed by Nicholas Banks, this new version has a cast of seven, including Adam Fleming as Jekyll and explores the device that there are four actors on stage all of whom are the sadistic Mr Hyde. Also in the production are Tina Aurora, Jerrold Karch, Julie Buffett, and Muneer Malik-Noor.

In the wake of serial killers such as Ed Gein, and stories such as Stephen King's THE DEAD ZONE or MR. MERCEDES, who often hide behind a meek and mild protagonist who turns out to be a villain; it is particularly apt to present this kind of material around Halloween. And in fact there is a 9:00 late show on Halloween night just for those people who want to catch a performance after handing out the treats to the kids.

I think this kind of production definitely has its audience, and at its best it promises to be an awful lot of fun. Hopefully I'll get a chance to see the show myself at some point.

VILLAGE THEATRE WATERDOWN