Jekyll & Hyde.qxd - State Theatre

T H EW O R L DO FT H EP L A YTo the cast—There are two themes I’d like us to explore in ourrehearsals:— The duality of personality: how good and evil canexist in the same person. This is a particularlyinteresting theme in the context of Victoriantimes, when it was acceptable for people to haveall kinds of secret vices as long as they kept up arespectable appearance in public.— Addiction. Robert Louis Stevenson was thoughtto have been an alcoholic. Some people see Dr.Jekyll & Mr. Hyde as an allegory for the wayalcohol and drugs can completely TRANSFORMus into someone else. (As actors, transformationis our business!)How can we express these ideas physically as well aswith the text?—BrianHOMEWORKTo help us get into the minds ofthe characters, let’s do a grouprole-play exercise. We’ll start bycreating a script for a radiocall-in show. One ofus will play the host,and the rest of us willplay the characters inour story: Jekyll/ Hyde,Utterson, Agnes, Lanyon,and also Mansfield, Kate,Sullivan, Abberline, etc. Eachcharacter calls into the show with asituation or problem that they wantsome advice about. (For example,Lanyon might ask how to approachan old friend who has been actingoddly for the past year or so.) Theradio host then responds. Let’sperform our script in front of anaudience to see how well we reallyunderstand our characters.6In the late 18th and early 19thcenturies the use of OPIUM as arecreational drug was epidemic at alllevels of British society. Many over-thecounterremedies, including thosegiven to infants and children,contained this highly addictiveOf course Charles Darwin was one ofthe most influential scientific mindsin Britain during the Victorian Age.What other scientific discoveriesand inventions were happening? Canwe see any influences of all thisscientific activity in Jekyll & Hyde?HOMEWORKCheck out some of these books by British authors that dealwith themes similar to those found in Jekyll & Hyde:Frankenstein (1818), by Mary Shelley. Another story aboutwhat can happen when a scientist tries to play god.The Invisible Man (1897), by H.G.Wells. Yet another scientistwho experiments on himself with disastrous results. This timeit’s an invisibility formula.The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), by Oscar Wilde. In thisstory, the lead character’s evil side is represented by a painting.Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1822), by ThomasDe Quincey. An autobiographical account of opium addiction.The word “Victorian” hascome to mean having a highlyexaggerated standard of whatis moral or proper; but inreality, the Victorian periodwas a time when prostitution,drug abuse, and mistreatmentof the poor flourished. Howwould living in that kind ofsociety create someonelike Henry Jekyll oreven Jack the Ripper?