Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

‘Women always know’: Playwright Hannah Lavery reveals dark truths in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s female-centred Jekyll and Hyde

Playwright Hannah Lavery is the mind behind Pitlochry Festival Theatre's Jekyll & Hyde.
Playwright Hannah Lavery is the mind behind Pitlochry Festival Theatre's Jekyll & Hyde.

When playwright and poet Hannah Lavery was approached by Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s artistic director Elizabeth Newman to create a new version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novella The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in spring of this year, she had to take some time to think about how it could be done in a new and interesting way.

“I reread the novella a few times and tried to find a way in,” says Lavery.

“What really struck me was the idea of ‘the good man’, and how within the novel there’s so much about men presenting themselves to other men.

“Yet on the edges of the novel there are these women. There’s the cook and the servant and the woman who witnesses the murder, the woman who runs the boarding house.

Women are often the canary in the mine.”

Playwright Hannah Lavery

“I started to think about how women always know.

“Women are often the canary in the mine, aren’t they? When it’s revealed that the man everyone thought is so good (is not good), it’s always women who have been carrying that knowledge.

“I thought, well these women know Dr Jekyll, they know what he’s capable of, they know his shadow side. What would they say if it was them telling the story, and I explored it from their point of view?”

‘As women we wear many faces’

The recent Me Too and Time’s Up movements were very much to the fore in her thinking, and it seems an area ripe for exploration within this story – the idea of the dark inner self that some men might hide away, often when outward perception of them relies on a gloss of respect.

What makes this version even more intriguing is that actor Alicia Mackenzie – who Lavery describes as “brilliant” – will be performing it in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s woodland amphitheatre as a one-woman show, filtering all the characters through a female point of view.

Alicia McKenzie will be performing all the roles in this one-woman-show adaptation of the classic tale.

“The idea was, I have a woman that can be all these different characters, so a woman can do all these transformations, which I found really exciting,” says Lavery.

“As women we wear many faces, in a sense, so that was my way in. Then when I was reading about Jekyll and Hyde, Stevenson was thinking of ideas around, what’s a good life, what’s hypocrisy?

“It felt like it was really speaking to our time, how behind every facade there are these hidden secrets.

“We live in a time where we’re in charge of and obsessed with the image we put out of ourselves on social media. This story speaks to that hypocrisy, I think that’s why the novel resonates, because we’re living in a way where we have to construct ourselves to fit into society.

“At the moment that feels particular to the way we have to communicate with each other through (online) avatars, we’re having to create these constructed persons.”

Classic horror with a modern outlook

The way Lavery talks of the Jekyll/Hyde dynamic gives a thoughtful new perspective to the character(s) and his (or their) meaning.

“Hyde is Jekyll without conscience,” she explains.

“It’s about being able to buy off, to drug, to quieten down your conscience – and then what happens when conscience comes back and demands a reckoning?

“That was how I read the novel, and I wanted to explore it as if the conscience was there in those women who were part of that reckoning.”

Despite the new perspective, Hannah Lavery is keeping the Gothic horror element intact.

Despite the intriguing change in perspective, however, the heart of what this classic horror is remains intact.

“It’s very much the same story with the same plot, it’s just that where I’ve put emphasis in will be different,” says Lavery.

“But I’ve stayed very faithful to the plot and to the time it’s set in. I’ve tried to keep a Gothic feeling, hopefully it’s still unnerving, it’s got some humour to it, as well.

“There’s definitely a sense of the otherworldly to the story, which I’ve hopefully brought to life.

The show will be performed in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s woodland amphitheatre, for an extra spooky atmosphere.

“I can’t wait to see it sitting there amongst the woods, I think it will make it feel really special.”

Jekyll & Hyde is at Pitlochry Festival Theatre on Thursday 26th and Saturday 28th August, and Wednesdays 1st and 8th September. See the Pitlochry Festival Theatre website for tickets and more information.

Related:

REVIEW: Lament for Sheku Bayoh holds up a mirror to Scotland’s relationship with racism