Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
		Starring J. Barrymore
	Photo credit: “The Silents Majority”
Dr. Jack
		Starring Harold Lloyd

More on the program, the artist, the location, and ordering tickets below.

About the Program

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

For well over a century, innumerable stage plays and films based on Robert L. Stevenson's 1886 novel about well-meaning Dr. Jekyll and his sinister alter ego Mr. Hyde have entertained generations of theater-goers. Within a year of the book's publication, American audiences flocked to see the first stage version of this morality tale about scientific research gone horribly wrong. In our own times, a popular musical offers yet another take on the classic story.

Stevenson's tale was filmed as early as 1908, but the finest rendition from the Era of the Silent Screen is undoubtedly the 1920 version, starring silver-screen immortal John Barrymore in the dual roles of Jekyll and Hyde. A well-known stage performer, Barrymore was preparing to play the lead in Shakespeare's Richard III when Famous Players-Lasky starred him in their production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In portraying the foul Mr. Hyde, the handsome star avoided extensive use of makeup, achieving most of his startling transformation through control of his facial muscles.

Critical response to the film was highly favorable; "The New York Times" noted that “everything that distinguishes it from the pictures that come and go from day to day ... is centered in Mr. Barrymore's flawless performance.” (April 5, 1920)

Doctor Jack

The 1920 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde spawned numerous imitators and send-ups in the years that followed. In the 1922 feature Doctor Jack, from the Hal Roach studio, silent comedy great Harold Lloyd gives us a very different sort of film. His "good doctor" is very good indeed, but Lloyd also has fun spoofing Barrymore's Hyde persona. In a last-ditch effort to save the girl he loves, kindly "Dr. Jack" transforms himself into a manic (not to mention acrobatic) version of the monster - complete with protruding fangs! In doing so, he proves once more the value of an old prescription: "Laughter is the best medicine."

Doctor Jack was one of the highest grossing films of 1922; “plenty of fast-moving incidents and laughable situations,” noted "The Film Daily." (Dec. 31, 1922)

About the Artist

David Drazin
(Photo credit: Carol Kyros Walker, with permission)

Live piano accompaniment for the films will be provided by Chicago musician David Drazin, the official silent film accompanist for the School of the Art Institute's Film Center.

Mr. Drazin, who is also a composer, film maker, and motion-picture historian, has numerous achievements to his credit in the areas of sound recording, live theater, and radio and television, both as a performer and as director. He has accompanied various ballet and jazz ensemble groups, including the Ballet Metropolitan of Columbus, Ohio; the Out of Bounds Performance Ensemble of the Chicago Cultural Center; and the Evanston School of Ballet. Mr. Drazin also serves as the pianist in Van Kelly's Trio, performing at the Como Inn in Chicago. He has produced a number of recordings, including “Dave Drazin and Friends -- Fifteen Years of Jazz, 1981-1996,” released in 1997.

Location

Don't know how to reach Argonne? Confused about the layout of the laboratory site? Here are some navigational aides:

• Area map, gif

• Area map, postscript

• Site map, gif (Building 402 is at the APS site).

Tickets

Remaining tickets will be sold in the lobby of the Argonne Cafeteria (Bldg. 213) during the weeks of February 21 and March 6 between noon and 1:00 p.m. The Auditorium Box Office will be open on the day of the performance at 6:30 p.m.

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