We always talk about word of mouth support for our shows being key to our success. It’s even more critical when we can’t get all the papers out to review us. Multiple reviews, if nothing else, give us a clearer picture of what the actual truth may be through multiple people’s naturally subjective opinions.
I know I’ve often used this space to talk about how disparate the critics’ opinions are in town, and in the end I’m often just happy about people talking about our work.
Well, The Trib isn’t going to be able to come out and review us this time around for The History of the Devil, citing budget and space issues. Sad, but apparently just a fact of life in this reduced-news era. We’re thankful at least we got a preview article and a box in Friday Extra. Still, a review keeps you top of mind and potentially gets other folks excited about seeing something.
This is where you now may be able to come in. Check out this post at Sticks of Fire. They’ll send you to the show for free in exchange for your thoughts.
If you’ve already been, we also encourage you to leave your thoughts here in a comment.
2 Responses
I had been eagerly awaiting this production because at my baptist university I had taken a course, “The Devil and His Associates” which explored mankind’s view of the nature of evil through history and I have also read rather well on the subject of theodicy since that time.
Though not directly leading the audience to any of the answers philosophers have come up with for “the problem of evil”, this play is about a 3 hour crash course on such matters.
The script is very good, very dense and very erudite. No spoon-feeding, and no answers will be given to the audience. Merely questions to be discussed for a long time after the play is over. Who is to blame for evil and hurt, why does it happen, what does it mean?
Garland is excellent as the devil, displaying the full range of humanity, portraying a devil that is charming, petulant, sad, hurt, enraged and coldly mischevious as his moods change through out the play.
Chris Rutherford is good in his multiple roles, Jesus, Dante et. al. and has been a great addition to the Jobsite ensemble. The rest of the cast performs well, no weak links in any of the roles.
The real star though is the script, making liberal use of satanic tropes from literature both ancient and modern and weaving them into something unique and new.
Thanks, David, for your feedback!
Here are some more links to other’s thoughts:
Brand Tampa
Creative Loafing
Jobsite’s reviews page
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