The Off-Broadway Theatre Review: All The Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented The Villain

By Ross

“Unsex me here!” An appropriate beginning for All The Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented The Villain, playing out and summoned with full force downtown at the DR2 Theatre. And he does it with a few lines from Lady Macbeth. Which is more than perfect as a parade of dark villains are called forth, exquisitely, with the passionate prose of Shakespeare, delivered with aplomb by the spectacularly gifted Hadestown voice, Patrick Page. It’s a fascinating exploration, given by a man overflowing with talent, page by Patrick Page. With a voice that commands our attention.

Diving with bold deliverance into the dark side of Shakespeare’s greatest villains from his first morality play encounter to his final foray into the storm, All The Devils Are Here… as directed with deliberation by Simon Godwin (TFANA’s Timon of Athens), unpacks the conceptualization of the villain and its origin with a bass-toned relish that is infectious. It’s the ultimate origin story, deftly delivered by Page, the ultimate Hades, flipping back through the pages of history to uncover the creation of the most wicked of characters, from the visual and ideal of the ‘Vice‘ character in 1572 through its evolution within the works of William Shakespeare. Ending with a staff broken.

Created and performed by the impeccable Page, this meticulously well-crafted “little seance” seduces, unrolling the text and the psychological case studies through the many “frescos” of Shakespeare’s great creations most elegantly. It is fascinatingly rendered and conceptualized, guiding us with careful thought and due diligence through the canon of this famed playwright, illuminating the evolution of evil, as conceptualized by the more than a dozen of his most evil characters.

“Shakespeare didn’t just create some of literature’s greatest bad guys — he invented the very concept of the villain,” Page tells us, most eloquently. He walks us through, with a vibration that is ever so dark and delicious, speaking of impulse and revenge; backstories and character development, all the way to the more complex psychological case study of the psychopath. From Richard III to Prospero, with a grand enlightening stop into the devils that live inside Macbeth and beyond.

The twisted motivation and hidden humanity at the heart of Shakespeare’s greatest villains is set forth on a well formulated stage, bloody-well designed by Arnulfo Maldonado (Broadway’s A Strange Loop), with carefully constructed crimson costuming by Emily Rebholz (Broadway’s Jagged Little Pill), exact lighting by Stacey Derosier (Roundabout’s The Refuge Plays), and an intimate solid sound design by Darron L West (Public’s Coal Country). Page, once dubbed by Playbill as “The villain of Broadway” is the perfect creation to unwrap this sharply defined thesis for our consumption and contemplation.

It’s thrilling and relatable; fascinating and detailed, from Richard III to Macbeth. He calls forth all of Shakespeare’s evil and the discord, to investigate its formulation and unpack its impulses, but also to understand the connection to our own human nature. The ending illuminates in its humanity and worldliness. It’s grand and fantastically delivered, with “speeches like that” that scare the hell out of him and implant it into ourselves. So beg the angels to come protect us all, because after seeing the magnificent All The Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented The Villain, you will walk out believing in evil, or at least understand its literal creation and origin story. “Let your indulgence set me free.” Now rotate three times and spit. Just to be on the safe side.