It is not quite a Dylan-goes-electric moment, but for the first time in two decades neither of the plays being staged by Bard in the Botanics, the summer repertory company, is by Shakespeare. In a mini-Victorian season, you can see The Importance of Being Earnest on the outdoor stage, while here in the 150-year-old Kibble Palace glasshouse Jennifer Dick has adapted Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
Notwithstanding the change of author, Dick gives the Robert Louis Stevenson thriller a Shakespearean sense of oratory. Our point of entry is the lawyer Gabriel Utterson, a narrator who eases us from the prose of the novella into a stripped-down drama for three actors. Played by an excellent Stephanie McGregor as confidant and conscience to Adam Donaldson’s arrogant Dr Jekyll, Utterson speaks in the vivid language of a storyteller, all lengthy sentences and iambic rhythms, calling on the breath control of an experienced classical actor.
