2015JEKYLL_CDMs Hyde is a life coach, motivational speaker extraordinar, friends to the stars, a ‘cult personality’.  Supposedly, she changes people’s lives.

But she’s gone missing and Max, a stressed journalist with a baggy shirt, a dictaphone and a bottle of gin next to his anglepoise is trying to figure out what happened to Ms Hyde shortly after he interviewed her.

We slowly realise there is something unsettling about Ms Hyde and the influence she has on people. When does assertiveness and the pursuit of your own goals become at the expense of everybody around you? She goads, prods and pushes people into harrowing and emotional revelations of their deepest secrets and insecurities. It is truly extraordinary to watch these breakdowns, simply done but powerfully performed – it gave me shivers.

Meanwhile, Jekyll, an unimposing girl under the thumb of her self obsessed mother is fast becoming Ms Hyde’s biggest fan. At first a bit of a lost, bumbling soul who speaks to the awkwardness in all of us she rapidly changes, a case study of what this woman does to people. What happens when the untouchable Ms Hyde meets her greatest fan?

This show is a collaboration between Hypnotist Theatre Company and Oxford University Dramatic Society, but it’s hard to believe it is a student production at all. The quality of acting is outstanding, at times humorous and at times deeply harrowing. The performances in Jekyell are some of the best I have seen in a long time, and certainly at the Fringe. An interesting and thought provoking re-working of the Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde, this show is new theatre at its best – twisted and gut wrenching, it’s certainly worth watch.

Jekyll is playing at C Venue (Venue 34) from 20-31 August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe. For more information, visit the festival website.