Synopsis

The play opens with Dr Stevenson, a young female doctor, being sworn into the medical profession by an all-male board. She is the first female appointed to the hospital. She addresses the audience and introduces one of her first cases, where she had to deal with the brutal assault of a young girl. We then shift to late December, 3am, on a Victorian hospital ward. A girl has been brought in with a bleeding nose and bruises, and is attended by the Matron. Dr Stevenson attends to her and the girl claims to have been attacked. A witness steps forward, Mr Enfield, who says he saw the attack, and Mr Utterson, another Gentleman arrives at the hospital in support of Mr Enfield. The attack is reconstructed by the Chorus of Gentleman, and we learn that the girl was knocked down and then trampled on by a mysterious, small, odd man – Mr Edward Hyde. To avoid a scandal, the gentlemen forced Hyde to pay £100 to the girl’s mother. Hyde went inside a door, and returned with a signed cheque. Enfield reveals secretly to Utterson that the cheque was signed by Dr Jekyll, “somebody rather celebrated. A proper top-end do-gooder” making the story even more mysterious. Utterson seems visibly troubled by this news. Utterson then confirms to everyone present that the signature on the cheque would have been Jekyll’s, and that he knows the name Edward Hyde as his friend Dr Jekyll had recently asked Utterson to amend his will, leaving his entire estate to his “friend Mr Edward Hyde”. Utterson also confirms that the door Hyde went into (and had a key for) is the back door of Dr Jekyll’s house. Stevenson warns Utterson that his friend Jekyll is exposing himself to “the slow cancer of disgrace” by associating with someone like Hyde. Weeks later, Utterson comes by the hospital in a state of distress, telling Dr Stevenson he is haunted by the memory of the girl being trampled. He recounts a night where he visited Hyde. Through a reconstruction we see Utterson confront Hyde at the back door, who sneers and dismisses him, telling him Dr Jekyll is not at home. Utterson then goes round to the front door of Jekyll’s house. He meets with Mrs Poole, the housekeeper, who confirms that Hyde has a key and is a friend of Jekyll’s, who they all have orders to obey. Utterson recounts a further scene, a fortnight later at Jekyll’s house. We see a scene of the Gentlemen (including Jekyll and Utterson) having a dinner party, and Jekyll is discussing the “multitudes” of elements that a single man can contain. After the other guests have left, Utterson stays and entreats Jekyll to change his will, saying he can get him out of whatever position he is in with Hyde. Jekyll asks him to drop the matter, and confirms he doesn’t want Hyde to be out of pocket should he be “taken unexpectedly away”. Back in the hospital, Dr Stevenson questions why Utterson did nothing about this, but is put in her place by the Chorus of Gentlemen, who remind her how well to do, upright and handsome Jekyll was, so no one questioned him further, until … Nearly a year later, October 14th, the Gentlemen report that Sir Danvers Carew was murdered. Mrs Poole describes the events, saying Carew was attacked with a gentleman’s cane and then trampled on by a small man matching Hyde’s description. On the body was a stamped and sealed envelope. The scene shifts to a mortuary, where Dr Stevenson is doing an autopsy on Carew, with Utterson there to identify the body. The Police Inspector at the scene shows Utterson a part of the broken cane, which Utterson recognises as belonging to Dr Jekyll. Utterson tells the Inspector the man they want is Mr Hyde, and the Doctor, Inspector and Utterson make their way to Soho to find Hyde. At Hyde’s lodging they find the other half of the cane – confirming him as the murderer. The group then goes to Jekyll’s house, where they find Jekyll looking tired and dishevelled.

Jekyll assures Utterson he will not hear any more from Hyde, telling them Hyde has left. Jekyll produces a letter supposedly from Hyde, which thanks Jekyll for his financial assistance and says he has found a means of escape. Utterson consults a handwriting expert, Mr Guest, who confirms that the handwriting is Jekyll’s leading Utterson to conclude that Jekyll had forged an alibi for Hyde. However, the matter is dropped, as Jekyll seems to have returned to his former self, being seen again at the Royal Society and Charity events. There are rumours that Jekyll has asked Poole to keep the door shut and refuse visitors, and so Utterson goes to see his friend Lanyon for advice. Lanyon has visibly aged and is unwell, and refuses to discuss Jekyll, saying he will not hear Jekyll’s name mentioned in his house. He gives Utterson a sealed package, telling him to read it when he is gone, and when Hyde has gone too. Utterson receives a letter from Jekyll, stating that he is the “chief of sinners … the chief of sufferers also” and asking Utterson to respect his “silence”. Utterson and Dr Stevenson go to Jekyll’s house, where Mrs Poole tells them something very wrong is happening up in Jekyll’s laboratory. Poole and the servants say they haven’t seen Jekyll for over a week but can hear footsteps which aren’t his. Poole tells them that Jekyll is sending notes asking for various chemicals to be bought from chemists for him. The notes are in Jekyll’s handwriting, but Poole fears that Jekyll has been killed and another creature is up there. Utterson goes up to the laboratory and shouts for Jekyll, and out comes Mr Hyde. Hyde is laughing and shaking, and then begins to convulse and dies in front of them. The Doctor notices a small bottle of cyanide which falls from his hand. Doctor Stevenson is bewildered, wondering where Dr Jekyll is. Utterson hands her a pile of sealed documents which were on Jekyll’s desk, addressed to him. He tells her that if she wants to know what happened to Jekyll, to read the papers. Matron, the Girl, and Doctor Stevenson are in the mortuary, with Hyde’s body under a sheet, reading through all of Jekyll’s papers and trying to piece together what happened. The Girl wants to know why it happened, which no-one can answer. The body under the table then moves, and sits up – it isn’t Hyde, but Dr Jekyll. He proceeds to tell his story. He explains that as a young doctor he spent his days healing the sick, but had more shameful urges at night, so he developed a split personality. He began to wonder if he could become “truly split” or “disassociated” – if the “sordid or violent part of me – for instance – might walk his downward path delivered from all remorse, while his more upright twin might carry on doing all the good things … ” He tells the Doctor that he began to experiment with concoctions to make this happen, to “free the twins” and it was successful. He explains that when he became Hyde, he looked in the mirror and saw himself – “my other, single, natural self. Pure … evil”. He then took the potion again and became Jekyll once more. Jekyll (with a hint of Hyde) explains that he felt no remorse for attacking the Girl, she was simply in the way and it was an accident. He goes on to explain how it became harder and harder to change back into Jekyll, and he had to triple the dose, or he would have to “choose between being respected or reviled”. The murder of Sir Danvers Carew is also recounted, with Jekyll and the Chorus of Gentleman taking pleasure in this scene. Jekyll then recounts how he wrote to Dr Lanyon, imploring him to bring him more supplies, but then when he met him, it was as Hyde. Dr Lanyon then witnessed Hyde take the potion and transform back into Jekyll which made him ill with the shock. Lanyon promised to take Jekyll’s secret to his grave. Jekyll then tells Doctor Stevenson how he tried to banish Hyde, and live as Jekyll, but the transformations started to happen during the day, out in public. He locked himself in his house, took his potion repeatedly, but soon it ran out. He explains to Dr Stevenson how he equipped himself with cyanide, because the “animal was boiling with hate” inside him. He describes the release and freedom of his death, and he dies. The scene returns to the dead body being on the mortuary table again. The Matron, Girl and Dr Stevenson clean up the space.