Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: A Play - Ch. 7-10

Narrator: Chapter eight, the last night. Times have changed. Several months have passed since Utterson and Enfield’s strange encounter, but this time of peace will be shattered in an instant. We now join Utterson in his lounge.
Poole: rushing in: Mr. Utterson, Mr. Utterson!
Utterson: Calm yourself, Poole! Tell me, for what reason have you disturbed me in such a fashion?
Poole: It’s Jekyll! I believe he is dead.
Utterson is shocked.
Poole: Please follow me back to the estate.
Utterson slowly nods.
Narrator: And so, Poole and Utterson quickly return to Jekyll’s home. Once inside, Utterson is led immediately to Jekyll’s lab door. It is obviously locked, so Utterson looks questioningly at Poole.
Poole: Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Utterson is here to see you!
Hyde: Tell him to go away! I will not see visitors!
Utterson is shocked once again.
Narrator: Both men leave the vicinity of the door, where Jekyll can no longer hear them.
Utterson: That was not Jekyll’s voice.
Poole: Indeed, it was not. I believe whoever is in there has murdered my master.
Utterson: Why would you believe that?
Poole: Several reasons: He’s talked in that strange voice for several days now; I’ve often heard a man cry inside of that room; and he has been ordering some odd items from the neighborhood chemist.
Utterson: What do you mean?
Poole: gives Utterson a note: Read this. He has repeatedly asked many chemists for a specific mineral, but apparently none have been good enough. He has returned every batch we gave to him.
Utterson: reading letter: “For God’s sake, find me some of the old.” Utterson looks questioningly at Poole, who can only shrug.
Poole: Also, the other day I ran into whoever is currently inside of Jekyll’s lab. At first he seemed to be Jekyll, but then I noticed the clothes did not fit well. From there it was visible that the man was much shorter than Jekyll and did not have the same fluent motions Jekyll does. I cannot be positive, but it appeared as though that man was Hyde.
Utterson: Hyde?! We must get inside of that laboratory now, if by force if we must. We might still have time to save Jekyll, but we must act now.
Narrator: The two quickly find an old axe and a rusted fireplace poker. Soon they return to the door which leads to Jekyll’s lab. They wait a moment and then speak to the stranger inside.
Utterson: Jekyll! If you have any decency, you will open this door right now!
Hyde: You don’t understand, Utterson! You cannot understand! Leave me at peace, I need only a few moments for peace!
Utterson: It is Hyde’s voice!
Narrator: (act this out) Utterson plunges the axe into the door, sending splinters in every direction. The door does not fall however, so Utterson attempts again. It still remains standing. Again and again, he hacks into the wooden door. Once it falls inward, Utterson and Poole quickly rush inside in hopes of saving Jekyll. Much to their surprise they only find a dead Hyde, vial in hand, on the floor.
Poole: He has destroyed himself...
Utterson: We may still be able to find Jekyll, or even a clue as to where he is.
Narrator: They search for several minutes but find no evidence of Jekyll. They do, however, find several interesting facts about Hyde. His clothes are much too large for him, and to his left, there is a mysterious mirror.
Poole: This mirror was not here before, Utterson. I do not even recall moving it into this room. Reaches down. Mr. Utterson! Look at this! It appears to be a letter addressed to you, from Dr. Jekyll!
Utterson grabs the letter from Poole and begins reading it aloud.
Utterson: Dear Mr. Utterson, should this letter reach your hands, I have already passed. I have in this envelope another sealed letter for your eyes only after you read Lanyon’s last written word. By reading these two scripts, you will learn all there is to Mr. Hyde, as well as all there is to myself.
Utterson looks up at Lanyon and then back at the letter.
Utterson: Stay here, Poole. I will return before morning.
Narrator: With this cryptic message in his mind, Utterson returns home. He speedily opens Lanyon’s sealed letter and begins reading.

Narrator: Chapter nine, Dr. Lanyon’s narrative. This chapter is an exact replica of the letter Utterson read from Lanyon. This letter told of a story that took place that caused his shock and eventually Lanyon’s death. We open with Lanyon receiving an odd letter from Jekyll days after their last party.
Lanyon: Hm. You want me to go find a drawer in your room and take it out at midnight? That is absurd.
Narrator: The letter asks Lanyon to retrieve a drawer from Jekyll’s estate and to bring this drawer to a predetermined location to exchange with a courier there. Lanyon did as he was told, respecting his old colleague. He finds the drawer with Poole’s help and proceeds to take it to the meeting point. (act this out) At midnight precisely, an odd, short man arrives. Unfortunately, Lanyon had never seen Hyde before, and did not recognize him.
Lanyon: Are you of Dr. Jekyll?
Hyde: Yes I am. Now give me that drawer. Lanyon gives the drawer to Hyde, who instantly begins rummaging through it. He eventually finds what he is looking for and mixes two chemicals together. Would you like to see the end result, Mr. Lanyon.
Lanyon: I have come this far, I believe I must watch the finale.
Narrator: The next events, only Lanyon can describe for himself.
Lanyon: (Jekyll act this out)“He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on staring with injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I looked there came, I thought, a change – he seemed to swell – his face became suddenly black and the features seemed to melt and alter – and the next moment, I had sprung to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arm raised to shield me from that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror… for there before my eyes – pale and shaken, and half-fainting, and groping before him with his hands, like a man restored from death – there stood Henry Jekyll.”

Narrator: Chapter Ten, Henry Jekyll’s full statement of the case. Utterson has returned to the letter found on the dead Hyde. He opens the sealed envelope.
Jekyll: Every man is divided. From my very birth, I understood this fact. It explains why, for all my life, I have had indecent urges. As I grew into my chemistry profession, I began designing a compound that would separate my two halves. I eventually found this wonder drug and contemplated testing it. I risked my life by ingesting the drug, but the desire to split my two forms was too great. I drank the potion in one gulp.
Narrator: act this out: “The most racking pangs succeeded: a grinding in the bones, deadly nausea, and a horror of the spirit that cannot be exceeded at the hour of birth or death. Then these agonies began swiftly subside, and {he} came to {hisself} as if out of great sickness. There was something strange in {his} sensations, something indescribably new and, from its very novelty, incredibly sweet. {He} felt younger, lighter, happier in body; within {he} was conscious of a heady recklessness, a current of disordered sensual images running like a millrace in {his} fancy, a solution of the bonds of obligation, an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul. {He} knew {himself}, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to {his} original evil; and the thought, in that moment, braced and delighted {him} like wine.”
Jekyll: I did not have a mirror in my lab, so I was forced to look at my new form from within my own room. What I saw was utterly amazing. Not only was my appearance distorted, but I had also grown shorter than I had been as Jekyll, as well as grown much hair on my skin. The oddest part of it, however, was that I was not afraid of this new form. In fact, it quite exhilarated me.
Narrator: act this out: As Hyde, Jekyll grew sick of the lab and his home. He fled quickly to the wide world outside. This was when he first ran into the small girl and was nabbed by Enfield. Jekyll: I noticed that Hyde was truly evil, however, Jekyll was not purely good. I still envisioned diabolical thoughts. I decided to solve this by acting out all of these evil fantasies through Hyde, and then by making retribution to all those he hurt later. Life seemed perfect for my two selves.
Narrator: act this out: But soon, his world came crashing down on his head. In a cruel explosion of hatred, Hyde killed Carew, breaking his cane over Carew’s body.
Jekyll: In that instant, I realized that Hyde must never return. I stopped taking the drug, and started praying for my soul. Unfortunately, it appears that we do not have a forgiving God.
Narrator: act this out: One morning, Jekyll awoke. As he looked at himself, he noticed that he had transformed into Hyde. Shocked and frantic, Hyde locked his door and began writing a letter to his old friend, Lanyon. Hyde then gave the letter to Poole, posing as Jekyll. Before midnight, Hyde fled his home and met Lanyon, as we know.
Jekyll: By all rights, I murdered dear Lanyon. I felt deeply sorrowful for his loss, but you must also know this was not the greatest of my sorrows. I was changing. My body was becoming Hyde at its own will. The changes were becoming more frequent. Worst of all, I was running out of the ingredients required to make my potion. I therefore called on the help of Mr. Poole.
Poole: Yes, sir?
Hyde: Poole, I need you to get these items (slides list under door.)
Poole: Will this be all you require, Dr. Jekyll?
Hyde: Yes, but do hurry.
Poole: Doctor, are you alright?
Hyde: Yes, and I will be better as soon as you give me the items on that list.
Jekyll: Unfortunately, I was mistaken. Every time Poole returned with the supplies I created the compound from them. However, none worked as the original had. From this, I assume that the original supplies had an unknown impurity that cannot be duplicated. My time is coming to an end, though, so I must end this letter shortly. The last of my potion has been used in the writing of this document, and I pray Hyde will not tear this note to shreds. You must also know, Utterson, that I have changed my will to bear your name, where Hyde had bean. “Half an hour from now, when I shall sit shuddering and weeping in my chair, or continue, with the most strained and fearstruck ecstasy of listening, to pace up and down this room (my last earthly refuge) and give ear to every sound of menace. Will Hyde die upon the scaffold? Or will he find courage to release himself at the last moment? God knows; I am careless; this is my true hour of death, and what is to follow concerns another than myself. Here then as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal...”
Poole: Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Utterson is here to see you!
Hyde: Tell him to go away! I will not see visitors!
Pause
Jekyll: “Here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.”
Jekyll places the letter in an envelope and seals it. He then clutches his side and becomes Hyde. He starts mixing chemicals.
Utterson: Jekyll! If you have any decency, you will open this door right now!
Hyde: You don’t understand, Utterson! You cannot understand! Leave me at peace, I need only a few moments for peace!
Utterson: It is Hyde’s voice!
There is a crash as the axe hits the door. Hyde drinks the chemicals and falls to the floor. He twitches as Utterson and Poole rush in.
The end