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When politicians and neighbors alike point fingers about who is right and who is wrong, who is “good” and who is “evil,” it’s hard to find common ground. Psychologist Carl Jung believed each of us has a “shadow” side of negative traits we like to deny in ourselves and instead project onto others but which, if ignored, can grow in power and lead to destructive behavior.
Such is the case in Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” based on a true story, in which “good” healer Jekyll and “evil” killer Hyde are actually the same person.
Innovatively adapted for the stage in 2008 by Jeffrey Hatcher as “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,” the brutish Mr. Hyde is split into four different characters, each revealing a different aspect of his brutality, sexuality and cruelty.
“One of the arguments I’ve never quite believed — and I suspect Stevenson didn’t believe it either — is that Henry Jekyll is wholly good while Edward Hyde is wholly evil,” Hatcher said of his play. ”I’m trying to have some fun with the notion that Jekyll and Hyde play a cat-and-mouse game with each other, and with the question of just who we should be rooting for.”
The Long Beach Playhouse is set to stage the play beginning this weekend through mid-October, directed by David Scaglione, who had previously directed “The Passion of Dracula” and “Frankenstein 1930” at the theater.
Artistic director Sean Gray said Scaglione has a knack for characters who embody the macabre. He also agrees with playwright Hatcher that the two parts of the same character in “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” are neither simply good nor simply evil.
“The complexity makes for a more interesting story,” Gray said. “Stevenson’s tale was also mindful of Victorian prudishness around the human body, including sexuality. At the time, the phrase ‘from tongue to tail’ was scandalous. Hatcher’s 21st-century sensibilities are less prudish.”
For his part, director Scaglione compares Jekyll and Hyde’s duality to our own societal struggles between rich and poor, noting that Hyde is at home among the street people of Victorian London. He’s also lustful in ways that Jekyll represses.
“It’s against this backdrop that the respectable Dr. Jekyll has begun to display alarmingly erratic behavior,” the theater describes. “At the same time, a brutal figure haunts the city’s streets, committing assault and murder under the cloak of darkness and London’s dismal fog.”
Besides a potent tale for our times, it’s obviously also a perfect play to whet our appetites for Halloween coming up, executive director Madison Mooney says.
“We’re entering the season of scary tales, and this show will absolutely help audiences get in the mood for spirits, good and bad,” she said. “It’s all part of the season’s fun.”
“Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” runs Sept. 20 to Oct. 18 at the Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., with shows Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Special offers: pay-what-you-can Thursday, Sept. 18 at 8 p.m.; $10 preview on Friday, Sept. 19 at 8 p.m.; and opening night champagne reception with the cast on Saturday, Sept. 20.