EDINBURGH 2013 - BWW Reviews: JEKYLL & HYDE, Assembly Roxy, August 10 2013

The story of JEKYLL & HYDE has been reworked and reinterpreted many times since Stevenson's original novella. The text offers so much to sink your teeth into its no surprise that directors keep on coming back to it. Flipping the Bird's production keeps the key themes intact - the mad scientist, the search for perfection, the beast within - and all the while using it to explore ideas way ahead of its time.

With the treatment of women in media and society hardly out of the news, the casting of a female Dr Jekyll feels incredibly timely, despite the Victorian setting. Cristina Catalina's strong performance demonstrates the violent response to the expectations society place on women, as well as an exploration of the pressures of imposed gender identity.

Director Jessica Edwards delivers a wonderfully macabre production: the cast's faces painted a deathly white, and the instruments used by the actors on stage - cello, ukulele and accordion - all help to keep the audience on edge. As JEKYLL & HYDE explores the dark corners of Victorian London the audience become voyeurs peaking through the windows thanks a fantastic set, designed by Joanna Scotcher with well-judged lighting by Joshua Carr.

Elliott Rennie's disturbed narrator, supported ably by potential publisher Worsfield (Joel Phillimore), keeps the action ticking along, providing important moments of light relief as the gruesome action unfolds in front of them. Michael Edwards is excellent as naïve solicitor Henry Utterson, and Leo Marcus Wan's camp Enfield, a fan of the darker periodicals, is very enjoyable.

It's an imaginative and accomplished late-night-horror that will have audiences' toes curling whilst they are on The Edge of their seats.

"JEKYLL & HYDE" runs until August 25th (Not 13th) at the Assembly Roxy.

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