“The British aren’t coming back, they have their own problems!”
The Arrows and Traps Theatre company returns with a new piece which will be touring the UK in the next months and is currently showing at the Brockley Jack Theatre. It is a new adaptation of The Strange Case of Jekyll & Hyde (originally written in 1885 by Robert Louis Stevenson), set around 2020 – The President of The United States has fallen, impeached for corruption and now awaits trial. As the American senate slides into chaos, election fever grips the nation. In the wake of yet another mass shooting, Mayor Henry Jekyll, a bold, young liberal announces his candidacy to run for the Oval Office. His one promise: to end America’s toxic love affair with guns.
This is a very clever rewriting of the original (which I haven’t read I must admit – must get on that) with even the tiniest elements being transposed into our times of divided societies and difficult debates. Utterson’s original analysis of handwriting is now done by an app, and Edward Hyde’s trampling of a young girl turns into a case of paedophilia (a theme Utterson herself – played here by the versatile and excellent Lucy Ioannou – is also dealing with in her own way).
