A sizzling spectacle of contrast and transformation

Can community theatre sweep you up? Can it swell into far more than the sum of its parts and smash you heaving onto the shore? Can it provoke your deepest desires and darkest demons, inspiring you to seize every moment with courage? Tonight I was reminded the answer is unashamedly yes.

Elmwood Players' Jekyll and Hyde really is a treat for both the actors and the audience. It plays with contrast more than any show I've seen. Contrast as the actors expertly switch between different characters, personalities, and physicalities. Contrast in lighting. Contrast in intensity. Contrast in tone and technique between the first and second halves. Contrast between religion and humanism. All this contrast is the perfect metaphor for the duality at the heart of the play.

We are transported back to the 19th century, yet the play is also delightfully modern – and delightfully naughty in places. At times it tugs on our human desires. At times it plays with physical space, putting humans into discomfiting proximity.

The production starts humbly enough. The stage is sparse – a blank canvas for the elegant set pieces and outstanding performances to come. The right-most bay of seats has been blocked off with a black curtain and a platform. This prevents line-of-sight issues in the awkward semicircular Elmwood Auditorium, and makes for a more intimate seating arrangement. It also allows the male ensemble to rain down a hissing cacophony of split personalities from on high, intermittently venturing down to inhabit their main characters.

This was incredibly smooth for an opening night (or for any night, really). Flubbed lines were exceedingly rare. The dialogue and action flowed at a natural pace.

All the actors were amazing. Early on I worried some (very slight) accent and pacing oddities were going to pull me out of the story, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I was utterly sucked into the epic vastness of the performances.

Special mention must be made of Tim Guy (Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde), whose carefully controlled vocal and physical commitment absolutely blew the audience away. There's a special place in my heart for the cheeky interlocutions of William Warren (Mr Guest) at some hardly appropriate points in the play. Joanne Wheeler's acting debut as Matron and Mrs Poole was impressive; I couldn't be sure they were the same actor until she was required to pivot straight from one to the other onstage with but the flick of an apron. Claudia Hall (Dr Stevenson) ably leads a female trio who prod at the mystery of Jekyll and Hyde, aghast at the vices of humanity that we see in several of the male characters. The male ensemble paint a compelling picture of distorted, seething personalities – each distinct from the others.

At the climax of the play I was writhing in my seat – not from discomfort, but because the physicality of the action was so compelling that I had to be part of it. I was completely swept up in the emotional intensity. This is a production that strikes at something visceral and real in each of us.

Once the show was finished, my friend and I sat in our seats for a while longer to decompress and reflect in astonishment on the outstanding production we had just witnessed. This season of Jekyll and Hyde deserves packed houses every night. We really should have given it a standing ovation.

Jekyll and Hyde is playing Wednesdays to Saturdays from 25 September to 4 October 2025. Tickets are available from PatronBase. Bring a gold coin for the programme.