A Slightly Isolated Dog’s new work Jekyll and Hyde builds on their previous work and a classical story and gives their audience the rare opportunity to truly play.

I’m standing in the furnace that is the Circa Theatre foyer, fanning myself with my tickets, when the doors to Circa Two burst open and five deliciously French characters saunter out. Two of them approach me while saying, “Oh my darling you are looking so beautiful tonight. Your hair, I love it! Are you with this man? Oh so gorgeous.” If every play began like this then I would probably enjoy theatre a whole lot more. These compliments do more than simply boost the audience’s self-esteem though, they create a safe space for audience participation before we have even found our seats. But all of this is like deja vu, and not just because the Circa foyer is always hot, but this is also how A Slightly Isolated Dog began Don Juan last year.

Except this is Jekyll and Hyde, their latest work. The comparisons between these two productions extend beyond how they welcome the audience, in some ways they’re exactly the same. Except Jekyll and Hyde is better. We can analyse it like like a successful sequel in a movie franchise, or the second season of a TV show that was just finding its feet during Season 1. And like its predecessor, Jekyll and Hyde creates an atmosphere that transcends the ordinary.

Once all the audience are guided into seats (some brave souls are lovingly convinced to sit on the stage), the “show” can begin. The cast all stop their conversations and flirtations they’re currently having with members of the audience, come together on the stage and introduce themselves with gusto. Each puts as much personality as they can into just saying their name: straight up Lily, sexy Julie, naive Claudine, gentle Sebastien and lovelorn Phillipe. They present themselves as a “very famous and successful French theatre company, here to tell you the story of the wonderful Dr. Jekyll and the naughty Mr. Hyde.” They rip into Robert Louis Stevenson's original story, but the narrative is simply a vehicle to create an experience, an event, and most importantly a party with its audience.

Director Leo Gene Peters had the same goal for Don Juan, to create a performance that feels like a party on stage; a celebration of the things we try to suppress. The difference being that while Don Juan explores relationships, love and sex, Jekyll and Hyde is interested in more than that. What are the different facets that make up a person? How do they manifest? Can we be good and naughty? What makes us shrink and what makes us come alive? The Jekyll and Hyde story is more successful than Don Juan in this playful setting because it contains more complexities and is easier for the French clowns to explain and for the audience to relate to. We’re not all the sexiest womanizer in the land, but we all have dualities in our lives.

Jekyll and Hyde is built the same way Don Juan is. The narrative is similar, the company’s energy is similar, the games are similar. This time around, though, they've refined their techniques, clarified the rules. Take their heroes, for example. Don Juan was built like a sexy snowman, with a silk scarf and a baseball cap; Dr Jekyll's more Ken doll, with a rigid blonde wig. Don Juan had to be played by two actors. One as the physical presence lip-syncing while the other actor played the voice through a microphone. While this game was fun, it grew tiring and repetitive, splitting the audience’s focus.

This time around, the company has nailed the essence of this game. You don’t need two actors, it can be done with one. They just have to be able to transform. Mr. Hyde needs to be larger than life, so whichever actor plays him not only get a tangled and spidery black wig, but also a microphone to alter their voice into a deep and terrifying sound. Think Pinhead from Hellraiser, or a weird cross between an evil Mufasa and Ghostface.

Like Don Juan, the design is once again simple and effective. Meg Rollandi’s costumes suit each character perfectly and allow their personality to come through; Andrew Paterson in sky high leopard print heels, ruby necklace and revealing white wrap shirt means he oozes the sexiness required for Julie. The spatial design and props by Debbie Fish are creative and interactive, and the moment the “fog” rolls out over the city is absolutely delightful.

The audience get to assist the cast at times and play with the props ourselves by helping to make Dr. Jekyll’s potion, this really adds to the fun atmosphere. Blair Godby’s sound design adds great comedy with expertly timed sound effects, and his manipulation of the performer’s voices is excellent. The use of modern pop music again really added to the party vibe, their harmonies are beautiful and Lily’s (Susie Berry) rendition of Nicki Minaj’s verse of “Monster” is exquisite.

Where Jekyll and Hyde truly triumphs is the structural collapse in the third act. In Don Juan this breakdown broke the world of the play and wasn’t particularly subtle. But Jekyll and Hyde is much too clever for that. The audience doesn't need to be spoon fed by this point, we get it. So this time around the collapse is within the world these characters have created. Claudine is struggling on the phone with ACC, they keep classifying her as a construction worker (this also recently happened to me, so I related to it hard), Lily is arranging to go running with an audience member and Sebastien is dealing with some shocking personal news. Each character's collapse links back to other moments in the show, and by this point they are all exploding outwards in a wonderful crescendo, until they are finally pulled back in by Julie who gets on with the show.

There’s a lot going on in this performance, with constant breaks in and out of the narrative, but what holds this production together is the fantastic ensemble that Peters has assembled. The energetic and bold cast give the impression that the performance is all improvised and rough, and while there are elements of that (audience interaction demands a certain level of flexibility), they surprise us with moments of total synchronicity and tight choreography. The sequence of Jekyll trying to resist the nightclub is particularly great, with smooth cuts back and forth between the cast displaying extreme eroticism and pious resistance. They seem to be prepared for any outcome. Always a risk with this amount of audience participation. But it is not the kind of participation to be feared.

Jekyll and Hyde displays some of the most gentle, loving and encouraging audience interaction that I have ever seen. These larger-than-life clowns ease us into the games they’re playing, making it feel like being involved is the most exciting thing in the world. They whisper dialogue in your ear and rapturously praise and compliment any audience member that does anything remotely impressive. You can't help but want to play with them.

As adults in the modern world, we forget how to play. We don't dream. We don't imagine. We don’t play make believe the way we used to. We’re all far too busy for that. But Jekyll and Hyde gives its audience this opportunity. You get to come in and play. For 80 minutes you get to have a different experience of the world. And that experience is joyful, positive, sexy, hilarious and clever. I wish I could stay for hours.

Jekyll and Hyde runs at
Circa Theatre
from 19 March - 16 April
For tickets and more information, go here.