Patrick Page (Photo: courtesy Octopus Theatricals)
Reviewed by Catherine Crouch
Octopus Theatricals at BroadStage Santa Monica
Through January 25
RECOMMENDED
Patrick Page (Photo: courtesy Octopus Theatricals)
All The Devils Are Here is Broadway veteran Patrick Page’s sweeping new creation: in 85 minutes, Page walks audiences through the history of dramatic villainy, chronologizing both Shakespeare’s journey in crafting his famed antagonists and Page’s own reflections from a storied career of playing the bad guy.
A young William Shakespeare would have grown up watching morality plays — simple stories that follow an everyman protagonist reckoning with values and vices. These were often overtly religious, and while they bore little resemblance to the comedies, tragedies, and histories Shakespeare and his contemporaries would go on to produce, they laid the groundwork for the role of theatrical art in public life.
These morality plays presented symbolic evil: actors would embody the seven sins or more explicit roles like Bad Angel and Devil. As Page instructs, to be a villain in the way we know it today was yet to be conceived of.
Yet grown-up Shakespeare complicated these depictions of evil — his earliest villains (Aaron in Titus Andronicus and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice) were given wickedness inextricable from the racism and antisemitism that dominated Elizabethan England. And yet, Page argues that Shakespeare didn’t seek to equate otherness with a lack of goodness, for the very first time imbuing the villain with complex yet understandable psychology. Never too didactic, Page does not ask for us to sympathize with Shakespeare’s monsters but instead to see the texture in their villainy — “If we had been treated as Shylock was treated, might we find the same thirst for vengeance?”
It is when Page explores Shakespeare’s later, more blood-thirsty villains (Iago in Othello, Macbeth in, well, Macbeth) that he is able to show his true prowess. Morphing into Hamlet’s guilt-ridden Claudius and Measure for Measure’s calculating Angelo, interspersed with exacting analysis, humor, and anecdote, Page finds true success as both actor and instructor. Shakespeare’s classic villains are malicious like the baddies of morality plays past, but they are conniving. They want something. And that desire makes them human — and far more wicked.
The production’s pacing is steady and sharp, only enhanced by Darron L West’s stylish sound design and Stacey Derosier’s lush lighting. Simon Godwin direction is tight yet never over-bearing, allowing Shakespeare’s poetry and Page’s recollections to shine.
It comes as no surprise that Page was awarded the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance in 2024 for his work here. Page’s talents as an actor are undeniable, yet his smart writing merits equal recognition. All The Devils Are Here makes for one heck of a night of entertainment, education, and fun. And if you’re unfamiliar with Page and his iconic basso profundo voice, you’re in for a real treat.
Eli and Edythe BroadStage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica; Thurs.-Sat., 7:30 pm; Sat.-Sun., 2 pm; thru Jan. 25. https://broadstage.org/tickets-shows/calendar/all-the-devils-are-here/ Running time: Appriximately 85 minutes, no intermission.
