ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON: JEKYLL AND HYDE to Run 5/14-6/12 at The Berkeley City Club

Central Works 2016 Season continues on May 14th with the world premiere of Gary Grave's Robert Louis Stevenson: Jekyll and Hyde (May 14 to June 12). Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson is known worldwide for his Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and the novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In this production, Stevenson awakens from a fever dream that unleashes a dreadful tale from the deep unconscious recesses of his mind. Robert Louis Stevenson: Jekyll and Hyde is a Central Works Method play based on Stevenson's classic tale of good and evil. Following the Central Works productions Dracula Inquest (2014) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper (2015), Robert Louis Stevenson: Jekyll and Hyde completes a Gothic trilogy created by the company, guided by the Graves/Zvaifler team.

In a cottage on the stormy English seacoast, Stevenson has a dark, awful dream that gives birth to a fully formed idea for a new novel that will allow him to realize his literary ambitions. Louis reveals the dream in intimate, uncompromising detail to his beloved, volatile, and very eccentric wife, Fanny. Horrified by the dark metaphor of the monstrous tale, and fearful of the scandalous revelations it contains about her husband, Fanny begs him not to write the book. Louis is passionately committed to pursuing "the truth" in his writing, no matter what the consequences. Fanny is worried about paying the bills (and what comes after for her, should her ailing husband expire). She begs him not to write the book, and threatens to destroy it if he does. All hangs in the balance if Louis gives himself over to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

"There's a story that Stevenson wrote 'Jekyll and Hyde' in a sort of mad fever dream in just three days," says playwright, Gary Graves. "The first person he read the story to was his wife, Fanny Osbourne Stevenson. But Fanny criticized the draft. Allegedly, she accused him of 'missing the point of the allegory.' Stevenson flew into a rage and the two of them had an 'almighty row' about it that concluded with Stevenson heaving the manuscript into the fireplace where it burned to ashes. The story we know is the second draft, the revised version. I was fascinated with questions about what might have been in the first draft, and what the big fight might have been about. What exactly is 'the allegory' in Jekyll and Hyde?"

Robert Louis Stevenson: Jekyll and Hyde Written by Gary Graves - A Central Works Method Play

Directed by Jan Zvaifler

May 14-Jun 12 (Previews May 12 & 13)

At: The Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley.

Performances: Thurs., Fri.& Sat. 8 pm, Sun. 5 pm (Post-show Talk-backs on Feb 23 & Mar 13 )

Ticket prices: $30 online at centralworks.org, $30-$15 sliding scale at the door

Previews and Thursdays: pay-what-you-can at the door Tickets: 510.558.1381 or centralworks.org