Set in 21st Century Edinburgh,
writer and director Donald Smith has convincingly updated
R.L.Stevenson’s classic story. It is performed by Duncan R.
Edwards and Gavin Paul, who take on two further characters,
Professor McKie of the University Medical Faculty and Utterstone, a
lawyer and legal representative of a medical foundation.
Henry Jekyll is the brilliant student whose
interests along with Professor McKie lie in the neural
transformations of the brain. A medical foundation, seeing potential
profit in such research, becomes interested. Jekyll wants to go
further than the conservative Professor McKie, who injects monkeys
with prepared injections. He wants to inject himself. This decision
leads to the emergence of Hyde and the story unfolds as expected in
a dark and dramatic way.
Donald Smith’s direction is precise. The
actors give the impression that every move and gesture is
choreographed. Duncan R. Edwards and Gavin Paul work particularly
well together, timing exactly the character changes.
An interesting and enthralling
interpretation of a story that takes to extremes the duality of our
personalities.
****
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