Offscreen Notes
Clive Barker’s History of the Devil (August 1-3)
“As long as we do bad things we need somebody to blame.” So says Clive Barker on the premise of his play “History of the Devil,” in which Satan himself pleads innocence to a court of law overseeing his case for parole from damnation. Longing to return to the side of God where he once shone so brightly, he claims that the evil of the world is the work of humankind alone, that he has been our scapegoat for too long. And so we tour the history of atrocity in seven acts, each open to interpretation so that we might contemplate the nature of our own ideological orientations. Originally written in 1980 for Barker’s own theatre The Dog Company, the play has gone on to be staged numerous times over the last 30 years by various production companies, selling-out houses, often striking up controversy and occasionally being banned for blasphemy. But all accounts suggest that the current version mounted by the relatively new Title 66 troupe is the most riveting to date. The man who brought us the Hellraiser universe meets an upstart theatre company eager to re-vitalize the stodgy world of the contemporary stage, and the combination promises a stellar rendition indeed. Don’t miss their stop at Montreal’s Cinqueme Salle, three nights only – August 1-3 – in conjunction with the Fantasia International Film Festival. Tickets here.
