The beast within - Hyde unleashed in spooktastic setting

Jonathan Goodwin. Photo by Bindi Chauli.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Anglican Church in London Road Cemetery. Performed by Don't Go Into The Cellar Productions. Friday 27 March 2026.

Review by Amanda Burden.

Human duality: the eternal tug-of-war between good and evil, light and dark, restraint and indulgence - the mask of ourselves we present to the world versus the savage brute lurking just beneath the surface, waiting for its chance to wreak havoc.

Admittedly, this could be a prophetic description of every Sky Blues fan next month, the morning after celebrating Coventry City FC’s inevitable rise to the Premier League (pleasepleaseplease prays). Hangovers are horrendous, aren't they. 

The atmospheric setting for the performance. Photo by Bindi Chauli.

Actually, in this case, there is something far darker afoot. This is The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson’s enduring Victorian exploration of the monster within.

And what a place to unleash it. Set inside the decommissioned Anglican chapel at London Road Cemetery, this one-man performance doesn’t just tell a gothic story, it takes possession of one. The setting is perfect: the all-encompassing shadows and echoes make this less of a theatre setting and more akin to a lost relic from a Hammer Horror. Spooktastic.

It takes courage to command a stage solo for nearly an hour, but Jonathan Goodwin pulls it off to eerie perfection. Alone against the backdrop of flickering candles and ancient church flagstones, Goodwin delivers something incredible: a show that is at once controlled, deliberate - and completely unhinged.

His transformation between Jekyll and Hyde is masterful, not because it is exaggerated but because it isn’t. There are no costumes or grotesque voices - just a look, a pause, a change of accent or stature. And suddenly Hyde is before us, straining at the leash, threatening to take over.

And when he does, he dominates.

Hyde’s first emergence is brutal. We hear an account of his animalistic trampling of a child in the street, marking the moment the “other” fully arrives. Jekyll's kindly, civilised mask slips, to reveal the impulsive, ugly, inhuman character in the raw.

Sound familiar? I bet if you're a perimenopausal woman it does. 

Flashpoint moments where rage replaces calm and fury takes over is all in a day's work to us. With added hot flashes to boot. We don't even need a bubbling elixir to make the transition. Look, Robert! No hands! It's just a shame Dr Jekyll doesn't have access to HRT. However, back on stage in Victorian London, there's no such remedy available.

Welcome! Photo by Bindi Chauli.

This production's power lies in its quiet restraint. Without tricks and showmanship, Goodwin strips everything back, and in doing so, exposes the core of untrammelled human corruption.

This is theatre that is intimate, unsettling, and impactful. A reminder - particularly resonant in these turbulent times - that the line between who we are and what we might become is thinner than we’d like to believe.

Discover more from Don’t Go Into The Cellar: https://www.dontgointothecellar.com/