DORSET — The Dorset Players opens its 97th season from this Friday to Oct. 20 with Jeffrey Hatcher’s 2009 Edgar Award-winning “Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde.” The show is directed by Marisa Valent, produced by Paul Michael Brinker, and stage managed by Steele Sawyer. An adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s original 1886 novella “Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Hatcher’s version is one that brings the plot into the 21st century with a more gritty, edgy and erotic take, according to the Players’ executive producer, Brinker, who explained how the play ended up at the Dorset Playhouse to open the season. “The show was brought in to us at our annual director's meeting and became a fast favorite,” Brinker said.
“The script did not have a director attached, so we reached out to Marisa Valent and she loved it as well.” The Players’ season, Brinker continued, always opens in October and its leadership “thought it would be fun to open with a show that would kick off the Halloween season.” “Our patrons do love to see classics and this script is a great new updated version of a classic,” Brinker said.
“I think Dorset and our patrons will appreciate the new take and seeing it told in a dark and creative way.” Stevenson’s original has always been viewed as a classic tale of depravity, lust, love and horror. On the fog-bound streets of Victorian-era London, Henry Jekyll’s experiments with exotic powders and tinctures have brought forth his o.