The Devil May Care by Mark Giesser. Southwark Playhouse, 77 Newington Causeway, London SE1 until 01 February 20245, 3☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.
Photo Credit: Lidia Chrisifulli.
The Devil May Care by Mark Giesser. Southwark Playhouse, 77 Newington Causeway, London SE1 until 01 February 20245,
3☆☆☆. Review: William Russell.
“Muddled drama.”
Shaw's The Devil's Disciple is the basis for this play written and directed by Mark Giesser. He has set the action in the town of Luzon in the Phlippines in 1899 when the United States was . This allows some quite pertinent – and blatantly obvious – lines which bring to mind the imperial plans of the soon to be President Trump but that is about it. Given a solid cast led by Beth Burrows and Callum Woodhouse as the disciple one is left wishing they had just stuck with Shaw because the play – some cast doubling roles does not help – gets very confusing and the battle between Woodhouse as Richard Conroe, the devil's disciple, and brother Elias played by Enzo Benvenuti beggars belief. There is no way they could be brothers for a start and if anyone is in touch with the devil it is Elias who is a thoroughly bad lot, weak and self serving. Jill Greenacre is an impressive matriarch but if these are her children one does wonder what their absent and dead father was like. The trouhle all starts when he changes his will to leave the family estate to Richard. Burrows is hugely effective as the wife of the minister Paul Prestwick, who is actually the dissident the Americans under General MacArthur are seeking, but somehow or other she turns into a lawyer intent on defending Conroe when he is mistakenly arrested as the dissident and goes along with it even although he faces execution. The fact that Prestwick and MacArthur are both played by Richard Lynson, well but that is beside the point, does not help. It is well enough staged, one admires the cast but it really is a pity about the play. Giesser has things to say worth saying about imperial powers and the way they and their people who settle there treat the native populations but Shaw's play is not the vehicle to use to say them. He must be turning in his grave.
Cast
Callum Woodhouse – Richard Conroe
Beth Burrows – Judith Prestwick
Jill Greenacre – Adele Conroe
Richard Lynson – Paul Prestwick & General MacArthur
Enzo Benvenuti – Elias Conroe
Izvan Hay – Isabel Conroe
Creatives
Director – Mark Giesser
Costume Designer – Alice McNicholas
Lighting Designer – Sam M Owen
Set – Intellectual Property
