This year's teaser text appeared online the day before, reading very simply...
This will be a very strange case, indeed.
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| A double-sided drama lurks in the shadows! |
A man enters a flame lit room and stands behind a laboratory table. Examining the items in view, he begins a soliloquy.
"I have always believed that mankind has two distinct natures, one of great good, the other of great evil. I have worked for years to find a way to separate one side from the other. And now, I, Dr. Henry Jekyll, have concocted the formula to do just that!"
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| Jekyll contemplates the nature of mankind. |
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| Jekyll's book. A good read of human history will make you realize a few things. |
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| Fire = Science! |
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| A vile vial, indeed. |
Drinking the contents of the vial, he grabs his throat, convulsing. He yells in pain as he falls to the floor.
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| Bottoms up! |
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| And man down. |
His cries begin to change to evil laughter, and a smaller figure appears wearing the same clothes. The contorted being heads toward a mirror.
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| Well, something's... different. |
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| Checking that new look in the mirror. |
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| Welcome to the dark side. |
"Yes! We can start small. Ripping off mattress tags! Going twenty over the carriage limit! Hahaha! And from there, the possibilities are endless! I..."
Suddenly realizing he is not alone, Hyde addresses his trick-or-treating guests.
"Wait, when did you get here? What have you seen?" As his initial concerns fade, he begins to engage his guests with a menacing tone.
"Ah, no matter." Hyde begins to smile wickedly. "Your presence brings opportunity. For on a night like tonight, there is nothing more sinister than stealing children’s Halloween candy!"
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| Pure evil.... |
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| ...and all he really wants is your candy. |
"No!" With a look of surprise, Hyde holds his suddenly uncooperative right arm back with his left. "JEKYLL!," he yells. "He’s trying to stop me!"
Hyde clumsily, and reluctantly, returns to the laboratory table, reaching for the formula.
"No! I don’t want to change!"
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| Jekyll forces his recompsure. This time. |
"Oh no, did I… Did he try to steal your candy? Oh, I do sincerely apologize. I am so sorry. Here…"
Jekyll looks around and grabs a basket of treats, gifting one to each of his guests.
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| Thankfully he had some treats to give away instead. |
And now, enjoy a performance recorded before a live Halloween audience!
As usual, a considerable amount of research went into the making of this year's production. Of course, there is no shortage of popular material referencing "Jekyll and Hyde" to consider. From the silent 1920 film release to a far later take on personality metamorphosis in M. Night Shyamalan's "Split," not to mention the 1886 novella itself, the real question was how much we actually had time to absorb.
FREAKY FACT: As it happened, I'd again this year joined the St. Louis County Library's Summer Reading Club, and was allowed to pick out a book at one of the reward tiers. Browsing the selections, I quickly spied a copy of Robert Louis Stevenson's original writing, and our theme was clinched.
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| Reading pays, kids! |
Much of our source material ultimately came from the book itself, the early silent film and the 1931 Frederic March adaptation, from which we discovered several years ago that we've all learned to say the name "Jekyll" quite the wrong way...
FREAKY FACT: Rumor has it the 1931 film was nearly wiped out of existence when MGM decided to release an updated version in 1941 and attempted to destroy the prior competition. In this, "Jekyll" was popularized in the English pronunciation with which most are familiar. However, Stevenson was Scottish, and once noted the proper pronunciation was, in fact, "Gee-Kill," which was used in the '31 flick and throughout our show. Though Jekyll is often seen as the "good" side of the man, he is actually a complex mix, and many believe this naming was ultimately intended to highlight the doctor's murderous fate. "Hyde," of course, is his pure evil side "hidden" within.
As a side naming fact, our doctor conveniently got to go by his real middle name this evening.
For our Easter egg lovers (we see you out there), from all this background knowledge came a couple of hidden in plain sight references which may have been a bit difficult to spot. On his table, the doctor displayed the detailed notes of his drug compounding procedure and a last will and testament, both containing specifics mined from the book, including the dating of 18—, as observed throughout the novella. Stevenson never specifies the year.
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| Jekyll's Last Will and Testament, giving his property over to a "Mr. Edward Hyde" in the event of death or disappearance. Odd. |
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| The formula notes from Jekyll's point of view, largely compiled from observations within Dr. Lanyon's Narrative. |
As stated in the notes, the drug was composed of a tincture, which began as a "blood-red liquor" seen displayed on the table. Simple cranberry juice concentrate, in our case. To this was added a powder, described as "a particular salt, white and crystalline." Several containers of powder were visible, the primary of ours being pure Epsom salt, with side vials of baking soda. It was then measured into a graduated glass, which we also had on display. The final result turned the consumable drug to a "watery green." For this, a little wheatgrass juice powder did just the trick.
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| The tincture, salt powder and finalized drug |
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| More strange powders. |
Costuming was also of note this round. Hyde is typically portrayed as considerably smaller than Jekyll, as his evil side is a portion of his total being with a much wilder and grotesque appearance. Therefore, matching costumes were a must, and fairly easy to work out, providing Hyde with baggier threads beneath that shared cape. We drew the line at the shoes, however, with the jump from 7.5 to 14 being just a bit too much.
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| Just "hyding" backstage in some oversized attire. |
That fantastic cape, by the way, was obtained from the SIUE theater department during a costume clearance sale in the mid-90s and has been used for several Halloween costumes and productions since, as you can spot in our archives. As it happens, we both graduated from SIUE in different years, though neither directly studied theater at the school.
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| Who knew it would come in so handy? |
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| Another peek backstage in the mirror, where the cape awaits its cue. |
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| General wide shot of the set just after opening. |
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| A better look at Jekyll's shelf incorporating other familiar items. The later added pumpkin, seen above, was homegrown. |
As is so often the case, the stage was set and evening performed with some help.
• Thanks to our church and friends for the borrow of a recently donated
white table cloth, which ended up in a rather significant role.
• Thanks to mom for providing the graduated glass and a vial or two.
• We got some special help from the folks at Leftovers, Etc. with a few last minute bits and parts, including the aged microscope. Give them a visit in their new location.
• Also, special
thanks to Jenny "the Giraffe" for some much needed crowd control (plus the top photo below),
and Lydia "the Jabberwocky" for helping capture our first ever live video with actual trick-or-treaters.
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| A sinister shot that even freaked us out. |
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| There's two sides to every story, this one definitely being no exception. Choose your side wisely! Even on Halloween. |
Decent weather? Pandemic restlessness? Growing reputation? No idea, but we were absolutely wiped out of treats multiple times this year. We've never seen crowds like we saw tonight, and another neighbor a block over said much the same.
While we snagged our standard fare of pretzels and candy somewhat early this season, special themed treats seemed more difficult to come by. Our first 80 bags did contain Halloween temporary tattoos, which we happened to save up from past post-Halloween sales. These, and an additional 20 pre-prepped bags without the temp tats, were gone in just over an hour, beating even our previous year's record.
Halloween ducks were only available in bulk this year, and more bags were quickly stuffed, but our extra 20 ducks plus any remaining candy or pretzels soon disappeared as well.
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| All this just wasn't enough. |
Eventually Batman, (A.K.A. our tax man. Seriously.) showed up, giving us all of his extra candy. Once we ran a final after-hours show at 9:20 p.m. for two random SUV loads that happened to pass by, all this was gone too, along with our final printed theme card. So, massive thanks to Dave "the Batman" for saving the day with those extra treats.
This year's card was printed on parchment style paper and read like so.
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Well, it’s a good thing you safely escaped the laboratory of Dr. Henry Jekyll! Our dear doctor, thinking he could perhaps separate the “good” nature of his humanity from the “evil,” certainly concocted a strange formula to prove his theory. Unfortunately, he only managed to bring out the very worst in himself, until he was overcome by his own dark side, disguised as the villainous, and candy thieving, Mr. Edward Hyde.
This predicament brings to mind the first people on Earth, who fell victim to a similar experiment. This couple, brought together by God Himself, never had so much as a mean look between them, until they tested the one thing God said not to, eating from a particular tree. The moment they took a bite, they had a sudden knowledge of not only good, but also evil. Ignoring God brought out the worst in them, and they tried to hide.
Even today, we can be two-faced too. We might try hiding our worst habits, but our bad behaviors can still make an appearance. Sadly, some have been found doing far worse than stealing Halloween candy. (And we hope our Mr. Hyde didn’t get his hands on any of yours!)
Quite opposite of this, we’re encouraged God still wants to bring out the BEST in us. We see this revealed in Jesus, God Himself, who lived with us to show us how to care for others instead of trying to take everything for ourselves. He was so kind, He was even willing to pay for all our bad behavior when He died. And coming back to life, He invites us to a new kind of life, learning to do good like Him, never having to hide from God or each other again.
The Bible tells us far more about how knowing Jesus can bring out the best in the very worst of us. You can learn about His Big Story at hallowsgarage.blogspot.com.
Be good to each other. Try sharing some of that candy. And have a great Halloween!
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Discover our many other sides from past Halloweens:
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