Midnight Pals: The Tale of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
DHowiedoit for Edward Hyde
Guest lead role (42 lines). Dr Jekyll's rougher, more rebellious alter ego (Jekyll does not know at first that Hyde is himself, but Hyde knows he is Jekyll.) Victorian British-born Indian self-made rich soup merchant. Hyde's soup is actually made of the corpses of aristocrats and tastes disgusting, but he enjoys the fact that rich white Brits eat it anyway purely because it's expensive and has become fashionable, and they can't "be seen" to dislike it. Hyde could be the same actor as Jekyll, but only if you can do a distinct voice. Hyde's voice is rougher and more Cockney than Jekyll's upperclass accent. Actor of Indian or South Asian ethnicity preferred. Hyde could be the same actor as Jekyll if you can do distinct enough voices, but this is not necessary.
- english
- male adult
- british
- british (cockney)
- english (cockney)
- Rough
(FIRST "MEETING" JEKYLL. JEKYLL HAS ASKED HYDE WHAT LINE OF BUSINESS HE IS IN.) Soup. I make and I sell soup. My product is served between hors-d'oeuvres and fish in the finest houses and hotels in London. I've been back on the subcontinent sourcing spices and other flavours. British food can't stay as bland as it is forever, or they'll all die of sensory deprivation before 1910.
(AT THE RESTAURANT ON AN EXPENSIVE STEAMLINER, JEKYLL HAS TASTES THE SOUP AND FOUND IT DISGUSTING. HYDE HAS ASSURED HIM HE KNOWS VERY WELL IT'S DISGUSTING, AND THIS IS DELIBERATE. JEKYLL NOTES IN SHOCK THAT EVERYONE ELSE, EVEN THE CAPTAIN, IS EATING IT. HYDE REPLIES:) I assure you, they find their soup quite as putrid as you do. But they cannot say so. Because my soup, as well as being disgusting, happens to be expensive. The Captain and other ladies and gentlemen of society would rather eat a bowl of rancid ooze than out themselves as someone who doesn't appreciate an exquisitely costly meal. They will smile and force themselves to swallow it, just as they do with caviar, oysters, or any number of repugnant foodstuffs that it simply isn't done to dislike. Send it back. I won't be offended.
(BREAKING INTO A CEMETERY, TELLING JEKYLL FOR THE FIRST TIME WHAT THE SOUP IS ACTUALLY MADE FROM) To make soup, first we boil meat. And the best meat comes from humans. And the best human meat comes from hereditary peers. The cream of society. Good stock. Born with a silver spoon in their mouths... and end up on a spoon in someone else's.
