Forget spooky season.
With its diverting production of "Chemical Imbalance: A Jekyll and Hyde Play," Lauren Wilson's feather-light 2008 comedic adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's famed 1886 novella "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Wilmington's Big Dawg Productions is all about silly season.
Running through Sunday, Oct. 25, at Thalian Hall's Stein Studio Theatre downtown, you'll either be rolling your eyes at the over-the-top antics or, like much of the crowd at Sunday's matinee performance, laughing your head off.
Led by the talented Wilmington actor Chad Hsu, who's making his directorial debut, a game cast puts its unflagging energy behind a mostly forgettable script that still manages to hit a few manic, physical-comedy peaks.
Of course, there have been countless Jekyll-and-Hyde adaptations over the decades, from the faithful horror films of the first half of the 20th century to 2024's harrowing, Oscar-winning feminist take, "The Substance."
"Chemical Imbalance" is closer in tone to 1953's madcap "Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," and Wilson's script is as much a send-up of fusty British drawing-room comedies as it is a parody of a scientific searcher whose experiments into the duality of human nature spin out of control.
As played by Jamie Lane, who in the past has given fine form to everything from a douchey golfer in Wilmington independent film "Birdies" to a dead-on depiction of Richard Dreyfuss in "Jaws" play "The Shark Is Broken," the villainous Jekyll of "Chemical Imbalance" actually wants to offend and transgress, but a combination of his inhibited nature and Victorian England's social strictures won't allow him to do so.
Hence, he invents a potion that transforms him into the twisted, grimacing, Peter-Lorre-like Hyde, who enjoys killing small animals for sport, popping the balloons of small children and clubbing various individuals over the head.
"Chemical Imbalance" is too arch for its own good at times, but it regularly hits the mark with wild physical comedy, whether it's absurdly under-the-dining-room-table conversations, Hyde's dastardly deeds or (no spoilers) the sexually charged exploits of another character who ingests his personality-altering potion.
Swirling around Lane's Jekyll/Hyde is an upstairs/downstairs mix of characters, with Tamica Katzmann as cockney maid Ivy (she calls her boss " 'enry Jekyll) and Christy Grantham as Scottish servant Plodgett doing yeowoman's work, which for these wonderful actresses is par for the course.
Mae Domescik is lots of fun as the Throckmortonshire twins, sweet Calliope and demonic Penelope, who prove key to the plot, while Jake Brenden Taylor in drag as the shrieking, behatted Lady Throckmortonshire is unhinged in the best way possible.
Ash Ochs does admirable double duty as Jekyll's lusty sister, Ambrosia, and a comically incompetent police constable, as does Jacob Denise as Jekyll's mild-mannered cousin, Xavier, and a blood-spewing police lieutenant.
Lisa Ramsay Perry puts the pep into Jekyll's dyspeptic mother, Euphronia, while Charlotte Fuchs earns a few laughs as his rightfully confused intended, Rosamunda Dewthistle.
Lighting designer Cole Marquis creates some moodiness in Jekyll's lab, Steve Vernon's sound design is both atmospheric (pigeons cooing) and comedic (the "Chariots of Fire" theme during a slo-mo sequence), and costume designer Naomi Nason finds some truly outrageous hats for topping off Lady Throckmortonshire.
No screams, but at its best "Chemical Imbalance" is one.
John Staton is the arts and culture reporter for the StarNews. You can reach him at jstaton@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Comic take on horror classic scores laughs, eye rolls at Thalian Hall | Exclusive
