Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde quickly made its way into the public consciousness, becoming a powerful image for the split between good and evil. But, as Deborah Jones reports, two wildly different, inventive stage adaptations, running concurrently in Sydney, are replacing that simplistic dichotomy with something far more complex.

Jekyll and Hyde
An illustration by Edmund J. Sullivan from a 1928 edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Image: World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo

It didn’t take long for Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde to insinuate themselves into the language as shorthand for a divided self. Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde was published in January 1886....