NOTHING TO HIDE HERE: Big Dawg Perfectly Balance Jekyll & Hyde
This past Saturday evening was a proper dark and stormy night here in the Cape Fear. A lite drizzle of rain and just enough chill in the air to need one’s coat pulled tight. The perfect kind of night to see a gothic tale of fright, with a twist all right.
“Chemical Imbalance: A Jekyll and Hyde Play” by Lauren Wilson is a hilarious lampoon of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic gothic novella and a send-up to the prim and repressed Victorian Era. Don’t let the name fool you: between this production’s stellar comedic performances and its simple yet clever stagecraft, there is nothing imbalanced about this horror-lite but humor-heavy production. The night I attended, the sold-out house erupted in laughter at every twist, turn, and sight gag, like a geyser of Silly String from a can (but more on that later).
“Chemical Imbalance” is Chad Hsu’s maiden venture into the directing side of theater, and he certainly shows an understanding of pace, blocking, and most importantly comedic timing. The first-time director has picked up a trick or two already, as he aptly handles the reins of this mad-cap production.
The script sticks rather closely to the source text but leans much closer in style to a Mel Brooks’ film starring Monty Python’s Flying Curius (equal parts satire and fart jokes). Dr. Henry Jekyll (Jamie Lane) is a respected scientist who proposes that human nature consists of two opposing forces: a good side and an evil side. He creates a chemical concoction to separate these dualling natures, but instead of separation, the good doctor gets transformation! The result is his murderous and maniacal alter ego, Mr. Hyde (also played by Lane).
In Wilson’s take on the story, Jekyll still lives a happy bachelor’s life at his parent’s home (the very scandal of it!) So, while Dr. Jekyll, with the help of his good friend, Xaiver Utterson (a nervous British Braney Fifi type played by Jacob Denise), tries to reconcile his natures, and Mr. Hyde runs amuck. The good doctor’s mother Euphronia Jekyll (Lisa Perry, presenting a pitch-perfect air of the era’s aristocracy) and his sister Ambrosia Jekyll (Ash Ochs, the straight foal character to all of the insanity around her) play matchmaker, to save the family’s “good-ish” name.
That’s when the eligible and enchanting Rosamunda Dewthistle, played by Charolette Fuchs, comes along. Fuchs’ embodies Rosamunda with modern sensibility. Where most characters house a deeply seeded repression, Fuchs allows Rosamunda to demonstrate a longing for simply being seen as more than her station allots. The actress is certainly the warm heart of the play, with Rosamunda’s conclusion brought my jaw to the floor.
It’s hard enough to play one character on stage, let alone two. Jamie Lane pulls this feat off quite well. The actor gives Jekyll a mischievous, Tim Curry-esque charm, who also enjoys his time stepping-out as his dastardly doppelganger, Mr. Hyde— that is until Hyde’s crimes can’t stay hidden any longer and Jekyll needs a quick cure.
Lane hams it up as Jekyll and Hyde but finds the right notes to distinguish them. The mustache Lane rocks for both roles resembles Snidely Whiplash paired with his matching black top hat and cape. Lane literally leaps between the two parts on stage in real-time, throwing his all into both roles and striking physical comedy gold.
It’s Mae Domescik, though, who truly runs away with the production. The young actress stars as twin sisters Penelope and Calliope and completely understands the assignment. The roles play up the “good twin/evil twin” troupe, serving as a physical metaphor to Jekyll’s own struggles with duality. She plays the sweet-as-sugar Calliope, who suffers from an “undersized heart and a weak spleen” with a dainty ease.
It's the pint-sized hellion, pixie-stick fueled, demon-child Penelope where Domescik wows. Mix the movement of the ghost girl from “The Ring” with the voice of Mercedes McCambridge from “The Exorcist,” and you’re halfway there. While scary, she adds humor with her vocality and physicality. A hilarious running gag throughout the show is that all the characters are terrified of Penelope, constantly mistake the two sisters for the other. These mistaken identity moments are played up to a rousing rampant that had the audience roaring.
Tamica Katzmann and Christy Granthem are a side-splitting pair: Ivy the Irish maid (Katzmann) and Plodgett the Scottish cook (Granthem). As Jekyll’s staff, the two have a natural comedic energy that resembles Abbott & Costello or Fey & Poehler. When one would go high, the other instinctually knew to go low. They make for a fun/ny watch on stage. The physical comedy is peak when Granthem struggles to escort/carry a passed-out Katzmann. (Shout out to Katzmann, too, for being able to scream that often, that loud, that many times in a row! Her scaredy cat screech always elated laughs.)
I truly don’t think an actor could be having more fun on stage than Jake Taylor. I just don’t mean within this show either; I mean across any show hitting a Wilmington stage this year! Taylor plays Lady Throckmortonshire, a woman of the upmost stock and refinement who probably actually has blue blood. In a story about the era of repression, this drag performance by Taylor throws all inhibition out the window. He grunts, he thrusts, he gropes his way across the stage after a mix up between tea and Jekyll’s potion. Taylor’s performance is worth the ticket price alone.
From a technical standpoint, the show is simple, but Big Dawg has always found clever ways to reuse, renew, and recycle when it comes to sets. Randy Davis and Terry Collins’ work with Jekyll’s sitting room doesn’t make for much to write home about. I did like the touch of a hanging chandelier above the stage though—really classed the joint up. An assortment of framed silhouettes adores the set walls, including a portrait I assumed was Ringo Starr.
One element of note was the swinging wall, which, like a book page, flipped open to reveal Jekyll’s laboratory. The area takes up maybe a quarter of the set when in use, but with a full-sized skeleton shackled to the wall, hinting at an already nefarious side to the “good” doctor.
The lab, and the rest of the scenes for that matter, certainly looks the coolest when bathed in the sickening greens and crazed reds of Cole Marquis’ lighting design. This same green and red color scheme drifts over the streets of London as well, mimicking a thick pea-soup fog. Marquis hides his slight signature of casting hidden patterns within his lighting schemes well, createing a wonderful sense of depth to his work, even in a shallow black box venue.
Costumer designer Naomi Nason decked the cast out with some truly decadent looks; Lady Throckmortonshire’s design is sure to be the centerpiece. Nason provides Lady Throckmortonshire with strong hat game that would rival the gaudiest found at the Kentucky Derby.
Credit where credit is due: whoever’s idea it was to use Silly String for the blood effects should get a raise, or at the very least, a day off. The effect created by the use of the children’s novelty toy was simple yet completely successful. It must have made the stage and costumes a cinch to clean up too.
I also loved how the pre-show music used was a collection of odd gothic-styled rap songs about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which helps set the tone before the show starts and carries the vibe through intermission. I was honestly impressed that so many existed. (Hell, I was shocked two of these songs even existed, let alone a subgenre?)
A lot like the candy that’s getting handed out this month, Big Dawg Theatre Company’s creepy and kooky production “Chemical Imbalance: A Jekyll & Hyde Play” is a real sweet treat.
Thursday Oct 22, 7:30pm
Friday Oct 23, 7:30pm
Saturday Oct 24, 7:30pm
Sunday Oct 25, 3:00pm
