The Devil's Disciple
Local Arts Reviews
Reviewed by Barry Pineo, Fri., April 13, 2001
The Devil's Disciple: In on the Joke
The Vortex,
through April 14
Running Time: 2 hrs, 5 min
George Bernard Shaw wrote for a theatre very different from the theatre we have today. Thrust stages were practically unknown, and theatre-in-the-round was more than a few decades in the future. He wrote for the all-encompassing arch of the proscenium, and his plays are an example of that style. Large casts, detailed and multiple set requirements, specific and costly costumes, and an attack on social values and human nature so sophisticated, structured, and smoothly executed that waves of laughter envelop you before you know what's hit you. Not the raucous laughter of farce or parody, but the quiet laughter of truth made plain.
If I could say only one thing about director Norman Blumensaadt's rendering of The Devil's Disciple for Different Stages, it would be that he allows us in on Shaw's joke. Using vertical wooden beams, bentwood chairs -- wood everything -- and a neat fireplace that warmly burned, Blumensaadt parades the Revolutionaries and Redcoats of Shaw's imagination on and off the Vortex stage. The story, as Shaw so aptly has noted, is pure melodrama: A supposedly bad seed, Dick Dudgeon, in the best tradition of courtly love, sacrifices himself to save a good and noble man from the gallows. Of course, there's more to it -- hangings, deaths, an arrest, a trial, and a costume design that echoes this period of our history about as well as could be hoped for.
Among it all, three performances stand out. Jennifer Underwood's portrayal of Mrs. Dudgeon, Dick's mother, is a powerful and frightening presence. Underwood delivers a believable portrait of greed, envy, cruelty, and all-around nastiness that is totally within the spirit of Shaw's play. (I enjoyed Underwood so much, I actually felt disappointed when her character didn't appear after the first act. Underwood does, but not in the same role.) Chad Daniel's Dick Dudgeon is dashing, blond, handsome, and every bit the hero. You know who he is as soon as he walks through the door. Both Underwood and Daniel handle Shaw as if it came naturally to them. No small feat, and while they primarily carry the evening, Jim Arnold as a Cockney redcoat sergeant, while a bit on the broad side, is so good-natured and quirkily professional, you feel like you wouldn't mind being arrested if he was doing it.
While the remaining actors in the cast of 16 appear competent, as a group they're uneven. Whether it's the direction or the actors, they don't all hit a consistent level of play, and some of the performances seem little more than slight sketches. When melodrama is working, one of its hallmarks is absolute realism. Underwood's Mrs. Dudgeon is a perfect example. She's so mean that you can taste it; everyone has known someone who could be that mean. Although the unevenness of the style in the majority of the performances is undeniable, what's most important is that the actors deliver Shaw's text clearly, and they do. The production has clarity, and there's more than a little something to be said for that.