The Monster Within

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

by Mark Cofta

JOHN DOYLE META MORPHOSIS: Straying from its traditional stage interpretation, this Dr. Jekyll (played by Matthew J. McDonough) sees his evil alter ego, Mr. Hyde, played out by the entire cast. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

Jeffrey Hatcher's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic 1886 novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde focuses on the original's exploration of man's dual natures, defined here as the aspiration for good and the instinct for evil. Iron Age Theatre's excellent production delivers not only Stevenson's still-relevant philosophical debate, but the great horror story's suspenseful build.

Hatcher's key innovation, brilliantly pulled off by Iron Age, is that the unfettered id that achieves its own identity — i.e., the lustful, murderous Hyde — is played not by the actor portraying his gentler half, Dr. Jekyll (Matthew J. McDonough), but by all the other actors, individually and sometimes collectively. This gives Hyde an ever-shifting identity and exposes Jekyll's interior struggles in a dramatically vivid fashion: We appreciate that Hyde exists with — and within — Jekyll, but we witness their psyches warring as if we're inside their shared head.

Co-directors and co-designers John Doyle and Randall Wise make the most of Norristown's Centre Theater stage as always, creating a black, cavernous space sculpted by light and full of surprises, centering on the key image of a red door: metaphorically, the portal into the mysteries of mind, morality and free will.

Hatcher's script maintains Stevenson's Victorian London setting, but alludes to the modern fascination with forensic science entertainingly; a cadaver dissection scene is especially creepy, and the search for the elusive Hyde outdoes all those CSIs and their clones.

Is sin, as Jekyll asserts, "nothing but weakness"? Or are the demons we struggle to submerge a necessary part of being human? This Jekyll and Hyde is less about one man — though that story is movingly revealed — and more about the monsters within us all.

(m_cofta@citypaper.net)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Through Nov. 23, Iron Age Theatre, Centre Theater, 208 DeKalb St., Norristown, 610-279-1013, ironagetheatre.org