HALLOWEEN gets bigger and scarier every year and I’m all for that.
I know there are those who mourn for the days when this season was all about ‘Penny for the Guy’ and blistering your fingers trying to carve a turnip up with a butter knife.
I’ll be honest, I liked a hot jacket potato from a bonfire followed by fireworks…but I think I just like Halloween more.
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I like the houses crazily decorated, I like getting sweets in for the bairns dressed as witches and I like the release of spooky films. This year, I also have my eye on a play that will fit the bill nicely.
Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde continues to fascinate us nearly 140 years after it was published.
It taps into that uncomfortable thought that, beneath our respectable exterior, there may be another, darker side lurking, just waiting to escape.
I loved the movie adaptations starring both Frederick March and Spencer Tracey, both brilliant, but I’ve never seen it on stage.
My family birthday present is to enjoy it at the historic, newly refurbished Assembly Rooms in Newcastle. Written by Craig Wilde, the play adaptation takes the celebrated Gothic tale into the lantern lit, music-hall underworld of Victorian London. What a cracking setting.
Most of you will know the original story follows physician Henry Jekyll, a respected doctor whose experiments lead to the unleashing of the monstrous Edward Hyde and as the drama unfolds the distinction between the two men becomes blurred and disturbing.
First published in 1886, Stevenson’s novella explores repression, reputation and the battle between our public selves and private desires.
Who hasn’t heard the phrase, ‘He’s a bit Jekyll and Hyde!’? It was written in an age when respectable Victorian society often concealed the very behaviour it condemned. It has been in print ever since, a true classic.
Part of the attraction for me, is seeing it at The Assembly Rooms, which opened in 1776 and celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, a venue steeped in Georgian history and culture.
This production features Glaswegian Grant Lawson as Jekyll and Hyde with support from excellent North East actors Jamie Brown and Luke Madison. CJ Miller is Ivy Champagne, an East End music-hall performer.
Miller himself shot to international attention as the “Mop Man” cleaner at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with his viral dance routines.
He wowed the crowds by breaking into splits and acrobatic moves to Queen’s ‘I Want to Break Free’ while scrubbing the netball court. Presumably he won’t be upstaging the cast with these antics during his Newcastle stage debut.
This is one of several period pieces this venue is putting on, following its reopening, including Catherine Cookson adaptations (yes Mam, I’ll be taking you to one!) and a Christmas Festival celebrating Charles Dickens.
And what a way to kick it all off, the haunting tale of a decent human who ends up with a sinister, split personality.
The enduring brilliance of Stevenson’s story is that Jekyll makes us wonder how much of that darkness might exist in ourselves, and with that in mind, you might not want to come round mine for trick or treat after all!! Happy Halloween!!!
The Curious Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, is at The Assembly Rooms, Fenkle Street, Newcastle from today until Saturday, October 31, 2026. Evening performances at 7pm, with matinees at 2pm.