LEWISTON — Ah, yes, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” – the story of the good scientist who drinks an experimental potion and becomes a monster.

If you think that sums up the classic tale by Robert Lewis Stevenson, you will discover a fascinating new interpretation on several levels in the play being presented by The Public Theatre.

An excellent cast of six actors accomplishes some interesting multicharacter portrayals, and the stage becomes a sinister fog-shrouded back alley in Victorian London.

It’s a satisfying Halloween mix of spooky suspense, sudden violence and intriguing twists of psychological speculation.
This is a new adaptation of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” by Jeffrey Hatcher, and TPT is presenting its Maine premier. It suggests that the evil we see in Edward Hyde is present just below the surface in all people. The playwright uses four actors, including a woman, to emphasize the ubiquitous nature of evil in the world.

This production’s powerhouse performance by Peter Simon Hilton leaves the audience with indelible images of the uncontrollable Hyde that may exist in all of us.

He owns the stage in every scene he’s in. He glides, crouches, pounces, slithers and slides around the stage. One moment, he is whispering venomous thoughts to the doomed Dr. Jekyll. The next, he is erupting in towering rage as forces of the “subterranean” mind take over.

Hilton, a British actor recently returned from a national tour of Broadway’s “Frost/Nixon,” makes his TPT debut in “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

Peter Crosby is the opposite side of the coin in the battle for dominance between Dr. Jekyll and the fiend he has unleashed. Crosby gives a fine performance as Jekyll, who is sure the dark nature of man can be subdued, even as his personal torment grows. He was last seen as Father Flynn in TPT’s production of “Doubt” and was in TPT’s “Enchanted April” and “Three Days of Rain.”

Sandra Blaney is new to the TPT stage. Her portrayal of Elizabeth, the pretty chambermaid in a London hotel who falls hopelessly in love with Hyde, is well done. That improbable relationship is at the heart of Hatcher’s adaptation, suggesting that love is not only blind but also dangerous.

Ken Glickfeld portrays Utterson, Jekyll’s lawyer and friend. His role as occasional narrator serves to move the plot along.
Poole, Dr. Jekyll’s housekeeper, is played by Sheila Stasack. She has appeared in several TPT productions in recent years.
James Sears is very good as the insensitive Dr. Carew who is fatally beaten by Hyde and as a private investigator who brings some wit and humor into the play.
Glickfeld, Stasack and Sears make appearances as other manifestations of Hyde, suggesting that Hyde’s evil has many faces.
The show’s fast-paced back-street action is well served by Jennifer Madigan’s excellent set design. Bart Garvey’s lighting maintains the necessary mood, including the appearance of blood-red doors.

On the whole, “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” is entertaining and thought-provoking. However, the ending is abrupt and Hyde’s final menacing words to the audience seem anticlimactic given the fast pace of the preceding scenes.

More shows
WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22; 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 23-24; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25
WHERE: Lisbon and Maple streets, Lewiston
TICKETS: $18/$16; call 782-3200
MORE INFO: www.thepublictheatre.org