The Devil's Disciple
Written by Bernard Shaw
Presented by The Shaw Festival
Review by: S. James Wegg
Review: "Long on Laughs; short on Shaw"
TWO AND A HALF STARS (out of five)
Written by Bernard Shaw
Presented by The Shaw Festival
Review by: S. James Wegg
Review: "Long on Laughs; short on Shaw"
TWO AND A HALF STARS (out of five)
Oh dear. In his program note, director Tadeusz Bradecki writes “Shaw the ironist and intellectual provocateur is fully himself in this play. He is at the top of his form—and he knows it.” then determinedly goes about “improving” the script and asking many of his talented charges to play the brilliant satire more for farcical yuks than the droll humour and human-foible insights that make the text such a joy to read.
Having a trio of British soldiers (Ali Momen, Craig Pike and Prince Amponsah, ably herded by Richard Stewart whose engaging delivery is one of the few shining lights) set the scenes with unnecessary back-story and spurious historical meanderings (bringing the 1777 American colonies location up and over to the founding of Niagara-on-the-Lake—wink, wink nudge, nudge; say no more?) serves to expand the stage time of the affable troops but weakens the deliberately economical narrative pace. Telling us that the Handel string music was composed by Handel adds needless insult to injury. Closing the show with a surfeit of Yankee jingoism makes the final curtain more a blessing than a deft adieu overshadowing the heroine’s (Fiona Byrne) character-revealing final line.
Even before Shaw cues the dour, desperately-devoted Mrs. Dudgeon (Donna Belleville, shedding more alligator than crocodile tears to non-family as she piously grieves for her suddenly-departed, estranged husband) Bradecki foreshadows the overarching tenor and tone by bringing literal meaning to “gallows humour.” The opening-night crowd seemed delighted to observe Peter Dudgeon (her husband’s brother) summarily executed by the British in a tableau of redcoat justice. God save the King. The playwright chose a subtler, kinder route from a typical rebuke (“... you unfeeling sinful girl, falling asleep like that, and father hardly cold in his grave.”) to Essie (Lucy Campbell) Peter’s bastard daughter whose unrespectable lineage has forced her into the service of the unloved matriarch.
Having twin Dudgeon deaths within hours of each other necessitates a visit to the scary widow from Reverend Anthony Anderson (Peter Krantz too earnest to start then too cavalier—although his metaphorical pair of pistols tickled many funny bones—as the born-again rebel), his much-younger wife, Judith (Byrne does her best to balance the extra mayhem) the family (Jonathan Widdifield—replete with loose-fitting stockings—does son Christy up to a T; Anthony Bekenn’s nearly-reformed alcoholic brother William is a treat; Guy Bannerman plays brother Titus with welcome understatement and Evan Buliung’s black-son-of-the-tribe, Richard, completes the clan). As the self-described devil’s disciple, Buliung provides many of the show’s finest moments, instilling an ideal ebb and flow with his lines before letting one of Shaw’s zingers fly (“Thou shalt not kill” spoke volumes).
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http://www.jamesweggreview.org/Articles.aspx?ID=974