The Royal Shakespeare Company presents:
I’ll BE THE DEVIL
by Leo Butler
Directed by Ramin Gray
Tricycle Theatre
21 February – 8 March 2008
 Couzens
A review by Amber Gregory for EXTRA! EXTRA!
I’ll Be the Devil was written by Leo Butler as a response to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Butler’s play is a dark and twisted account of a family’s life in Limerick, Ireland, set in the eighteenth century. Devil… has little logic or timeline, yet, it takes us on an exciting journey via its varying plots. Just as you start to make sense of one storyline, it jumps to another. Rather than simply offering the story of its characters, Butler’s play offers themes for the audience to pick up on.
Lieutenant Coyle (Eoin McCarthy) is living the double life of a Catholic at home and heart, and also that of a Protestant soldier. His lover, Maryanne (Derbhle Crotty) a ‘witch’ (who was once married to Coyle’s brother, killed for selling a horse), inflicts love, fear and hatred on her confused children. Dermot, (Tom Burk) the Lieutenant’s mentally challenged son, is desperate to join his father in the regiment, where as his daughter Ellen (Samantha Young) wants nothing more than to comfort him with Catholic gifts which he is forced to accept.
Although written with The Tempest in mind, aspects of some of Shakespeare’s other plays also appear, especially those found in King Lear and Henry IV part one. Conflict, war, colonisation and occupation, themes an audience can easily relate to our modern day world, run through Butler’s play. We are shown a world where the implications inherent to belonging to a particular religion result in extreme, life- threatening situations.
As with many of Shakespeare’s tragedies, Butler’s play features gruesome violence, possibly, reaching levels unusual for modern day theatre. Despite the extremes of realistic violence that we see on TV and in films today, such horrific scenes must have been challenging to convey before a live audience. Leo Butler and director Ramin Gray have risen to the challenges presented and have successfully created a shadowy and disturbing piece.
The main actors are all superb, particularly Tom Burk who plays Dermot. Ironically, he is one of the few members of the cast who is not originally from Ireland. Burk portrays Dermot as a character one cannot help but pity, but also, feel disturbed by. The dialogue of the play must have been difficult to master as its nuances demand that the characters constantly interrupt one other during long scenes which have, nonetheless, been rehearsed to perfection.
Swift, dramatic scene changes kept the action flowing, and scenery, lighting and sound further helped to bring the play to life. The misty and mysterious setting for the play, designed by Lizzie Clachan was atmospheric. My only complaint, and it’s a minor one, is that in one scene, set in a tabard, the uncomfortably bright lighting at the back of the stage was visible. Rather than the ‘island’ we see in The Tempest the ‘unknown’ was portrayed by a forest, which was thorny and threatening. The lighting contributed also, especially to the ‘fogginess’ during the forest scenes. The recorded sound of thunder, repeated throughout the performance, was juxtaposed by live music of bagpipes and fiddle played by actors on stage. All of these elements seemed right for the time that the play was set in - 1762. The costumes were grey and dreary, apart from the bright red jackets of the soldiers, symbolising power.
I’ll Be the Devil is a play washed with blood and dark with enigmatic mystery. An audience may well leave the performance confused as to what they have witnessed, yet knowing what they have seen represents a disturbing piece of history- one with far too many truths relevant to our world today.
Edited by Mary Couzens
www.tricycle.co.uk
Box Office: 020 7328 1000
Mon-Wed & Mats £10; Thu-Fri £15; Sat eve £18
Mon-Sat 8pm; 27 Feb 7pm; Sat Mats 1 & 8 Mar 4pm
Performance Length: 1 hour and 45 minutes, no interval
Tricycle Theatre
269 Kilburn High Road, London, NW6 7JR
The production contains strong language, violence
and explicit scenes of an adult nature
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