Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde-an outstanding performance that is a must for a cold autumn night.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the perfect autumn drama and the best way to have a cheap and much enjoyable night out on your very own door step. The acting is outstanding, the directing is impressive and the whole show is breathtakingly atmospheric leaving you going home expecting to jump in a Victorian horse drawn carriage.

As the nights get longer and the days get gloomier heading to our local theatre for a night of enjoyment is just what is needed. The Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch has the perfect play to keep us glued to our seats and literally leave our list of troubles behind us for a night of atmospheric melodrama set in Victorian times.

The theatre is currently hosting Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, perfect for an autumn night when the leaves blow, the wind howls and the stage is set to leave you completely chilled and totally gripped.

This is an outstanding adaptation that has an ensemble cast where the actors play multiple roles including of course, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Most of us know the story of the doctor who experiments to find his other self in the shape of Mr Hyde and how he becomes two people by taking a serum he has invented in his laboratory.

However, and this is when the audience are gripped to their seat, the much respected and esteemed Dr Jekyll then becomes a violent assailant in the form of the mysterious Mr Hyde. Mr Hyde is a violent attacker and murderer on the streets of Victorian London. Has Dr Jekyll unleashed a monster?

The show is beautifully melodramatic, but at times it crosses into Victorian musical hall with a dark sense of humour. This is a really innovative adaptation by Neil Bartlett and skilfully directed by Sarah Brigham using a single set of a Victorian teaching hospital. The cast is outstanding and Nicholas Shaw as Jekyll and Hyde, is just superb in his transformations. Mention must also go to Neal Craig who stepped in at the last moment to play the part of Dr Lanyon, after the original actor was taken ill.

This co-production between Derby Theatre and the Queen’s Theatre is deserving of a run in the West End as we would definitely rate it as five star. It is highly watchable and thoroughly entertaining.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the perfect autumn drama and the best way to have a cheap and much enjoyable night out on your very own door step. The acting is outstanding, the directing is impressive and the whole show is breathtakingly atmospheric leaving you going home expecting to jump in a Victorian horse drawn carriage.

This is once again, another must watch for Havering residents.

Well done Queen’s Theatre.

The show runs until November 12.

Photo credit to Grant Archer.