Clive Barker's The History of the Devil

POLYMORPHIC PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS CLIVE BARKER’S THE HISTORY OF THE DEVIL

In Clive Barker's frequently fantastic and often grotesque The History of the Devil, a deprived and lovelorn Satan is sick and tired of living in Hell. He bemoans the loss of his angel-wings, his freedom of flight, his elegance, and grace. And he misses God. So, he calls a trial, his appeal, to seek re-admittance into Heaven. The prosecution argues that the Devil’s presence on Earth has had a disastrous effect on mankind, whereas the defense counters that the Devil is – and always has been – man’s greatest scapegoat.

As the trial moves through space and time, a seductively wide range of characters tell the Devil’s story. Whether it is angels falling from heaven in a Russian winter, a decaying prison cell holding accused witches in Lucerne, or a boxing match in England with stakes high enough to make a man out of a machine, each testimony reveals the Devil wearing a different skin, until, by the end, he sheds them all. Are these scenes of humanity's great failures - or are they the work of the Devil, his own wicked crimes? Does even the Devil eventually deserve paradise? If Satan wins his day in court, he'll be with his Father in Heaven. And if he loses? He'll spend eternity here with us - on Earth.

It's an argument for integrity. If letting the Devil, a character widely regarded as the ultimate wrongdoer, go free turns out to be the ethical thing to do, should you do it?

Written in the early 1980s and published in 1995 as part of a collection of plays called Incarnations, Clive Barker never intended the play to be published, originally writing it to be developed and performed by his own London theatre, The Dog Company, with himself as director and Doug Bradley (who gained fame as Pinhead in Barker’s Hellraiser films) as the Devil. It has since been performed in numerous theatres’ around the world.
According to Clive Barker “if this story is worth telling it’s because it’s about being human. The Devil’s tale is the tale of our own confusion, ego, and inability to live without hope for heaven.”

Under James Kable’s direction of Clive Barker's dark and witty script for Polymorphic Productions, we see Satan at his mercurial wickedest. In a play of interesting twists and turns, full of dark humour and some hilarious role reversals, a gifted cast of 10 portray over 30 characters led by Connor Scoble as the slippery, charismatic Lucifer.

Connor is joined by Lisa Hickey, Sherri Smith, Tiana Varcoe, Thomas Eastwood, Sandra Harman, Alexis Beebe, HG Mancini, Ben Postle and Talullah Wright in this one-of-a-kind production.

The History of the Devil plays at Metro Arts New Benner Theatre from 22nd November to 16th December 2023.