Davies is certainly on the write track
JEKYLL AND HYDE Loud Mouth Theatre The Goods Shed, Macquarie Point Until November 25
COMPARED to writers in other forms, a playwright is uniquely disadvantaged.
A poet, novelist or essayist can pass their work around to be read and responded to, but for the playwright the proof is in the playing. It is only in production that the playwright’s work is really tested.
So production is essential, especially for emerging writers, but it is also artistically and financially risky, and needs an audience prepared to be part of a writer’s development.
First-time playwright Jessica Davies has adapted Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel into a taut 70-minute drama, with a female Jekyll and a fertile through-line of trauma leading to repression and madness.
Davies’ premise is strong and her plotting intricate and clever. The dialogue writing is particularly fine.
There are weaknesses, of course — was there ever a playwright who produced a perfect first play? These can be traced to inexperience and the particular challenges of adapting prose to drama.
Principally, the characters lack the detail, the specificity upon which successful character writing (and acting) depends. As a result, the characters tend to displays of attitude, and repetition.
The play is given a loving production by Maeve MacGregor. It creates a sense of suspense without resort to schlock. Visually and spatially it is rich and interesting. The sonic dimension is also elaborate, if less subtle.
Led by Bryony Geeves’ visceral Jekyll and Jesse Duggan’s haunting Hyde, the actors serve their writer well.