All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Klein Theatre, Washington, DC


Patrick Page in his one-man show, All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain, at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo credit: Julieta Cervantes.

All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain, created and performed by Patrick Page, is the current offering (through December 29) on the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Klein Theatre stage. Directed by STC’s artistic director, Simon Godwin, it is, strictly speaking, not a play: it is so much more than that. It is an event, a spellbinding performance, a master class in classical acting (and acting in general), an entrancing lecture about Shakespeare’s genius, and a persuasive argument that Shakespeare is responsible for the villain as we know it today.

Page created All the Devils during the pandemic. It was first performed on film, presented online by STC. The performance won major awards when it was presented off-Broadway in the spring (Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Off-Broadway Solo Performance). It has also been presented at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis and will be performed at Broad Stage in Santa Monica, CA in April 2025. Page is a Tony nominee and Grammy Award winner for the Broadway musical Hadestown and a frequent star in STC productions, most recently in the title role of STC’s 2023 production of King Lear (https://theatregoerthoughts.blogspot.com/2023/03/king-lear-klein-theatre-shakespeare.html).

The pre-show music celebrates the bad guys. Two songs in particular stood out to me: “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by Charley Daniels and Jim Croce’s “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.” After Page gives a kind of incantation to begin the evening, he cites various contemporary examples of the kinds of villains about whom he is speaking. Among others, he includes leading characters from the television series “Breaking Bad,” “The Sopranos,” and “House of Cards.” All of this leads him (and us) to contemplate whether evil is an inherent (and perhaps even inherited) quality or a moral (amoral?) choice made by a person/character with free will. To paraphrase another current cultural phenomenon, are people born wicked (evil) or is it thrust upon them?

Page focuses on nine of Shakespeare’s villains, each listed in the program with a “villain meter” rating of 1 to 5, the higher number as most villainous. As he describes the characters and their circumstances, he creates moments from each play in which he plays not only the villains but also the characters with whom the villains are speaking. Page begins with early villains and describes their increasing complexity as Shakespeare delves more deeply into their motivations, eventually reaching psychopathy. Page’s program describes each villain’s “redeeming” quality before the “darkest” quality. In other words, as vile as these villains may be, each has a positive attribute. For example, Lady Macbeth’s redeeming quality is “Throws a great dinner party,” even though she is an accomplice to murder. Page also explains some of the cultural beliefs of Elizabethan England; some of which Shakespeare observes and others he defies.

It is helpful to me that I have seen STC productions of four of the eight plays represented (Macbeth, aka The Scottish Tragedy) is represented by both Mr. and Mrs. Macbeth. Indeed, Lady M is the only woman villain included. (Anyone who saw STC’s production earlier this year, with Ralph Fiennes and Indira Varna, knows that they each earn their spots in this gallery of evil-doers.) The two villains with whom I was not familiar were from Titus Andronicus (villain: Aaron the Moor) and Measure for Measure (villain: Angelo). In addition to the plays mentioned so far, Page chooses the title character of Richard III as well as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Claudius in Hamlet, Iago in Othello, and Edmund in King Lear. Page not only includes characterizations from these plays, he ends the evening with a speech delivered by Prospero in The Tempest.

Patrick Page in All the Devils Are Here at Shakespeare Theatre Company. Photo credit: Julieta Cervantes.

Page achieves his transitions from one character to the next with an actor’s two basic tools: a body that takes on different postures and expressions and a rich, sonorous voice that can be menacingly dark (one of Page’s credits is Scar in The Lion King, certainly a villain) or innocently light. He uses a handful of basic props and makes slight adjustments in what he is wearing. The stage is mostly bare, save a metal grid that holds lighting equipment. Arnulfo Maldonado’s scene design is enhanced by Stacey Derosier’s striking lighting. Before the show, the stage is bathed in red light, which suggested (to me, at least) the mouth of Hell, which is where these characters are headed. Emily Rebholz designs the costume Page wears, to which he adds or subtracts as needed. Darron L. West’s sound design appeared to have a few glitches with static on opening night, but these were minor and should be eliminated in subsequent performances.

At the end of the evening, Page suggests that, since we have seen and acknowledged the villains, we can return them to Shakespeare’s manuscripts where they originated. Having tucked them back where they belong, we can leave the theatre without fear.

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