As we file into the theater, a series of songs about villains – “Sympathy for the Devil” et al – creates atmosphere. Clearly this is not, despite its subject matter, going to be a somber affair. Patrick Page enters, kneels before blood red curtains, and wraps three times summoning spirits with a staff. Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty! (Lady MacBeth) “Do those words frighten you? They scare the hell out of me. Or rather, I should say, they scare the hell into me, which is exactly what they were designed to do…” Page says.
We begin at the beginning with intriguing facts: When Will Shakespeare was a boy, “villain” meant a man of low birth. The bad guy in Morality Plays (religious allegories) was called The Vice, “a kind of personified Sin—like Greed, Envy, Jealousy, or Lust. Think of him as that little red Devil that sits on Homer Simpson’s shoulder.” (Page) Elizabethans didn’t look for motivation. If people did bad things, they were bad people. One could tell a bad person through the “Art of Physiognomy,” basically a way to sideline minorities. Foreigners and those with disabilities were at the top of the list.
Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who seized the crown becoming Richard III, was Shakespeare’s first great villain: The midwife wonder’d and the women cried ‘O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!’ And so I was; which plainly signified That I should snarl and bite and play the dog… (Richard) The Duke was born bad, this play about him a roaring success. Page reads us one critical dissent which refers to Shakespeare as a small town upstart.
We’re told about plague years, the playwright Marlowe who preceded him in fame (and from whom he borrowed for Aaron, the Moor in Titus Andronicus.) And about the bard’s “dark lady of the sonnets” (not his wife back home) stimulating two years of romantic drama and poems including Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Pressured to create a Jewish villain (the populous was antisemitic) he concocted Shylock. (The Merchant of Venice.) Here we have obvious motivation from a villain.
As Shakespeare gained ground, he bought a house, a coat of arms, and became a shareholder in The Globe Theater. “King Harry may be speaking for Shakespeare himself, and protesting a bit too much, when he insists: By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, Such outward things dwell not in my desires: But if it be a sin to covet honor, I am the most offending soul alive,” Page observes. Social climbers are exemplified by Malvolio in Twelfth Night, a character Page inhabits with gleeful abandon. At the end of a long speech, the character cries, “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you!”
Any number of Shakespeare characters take revenge, yet all are not all bad. In Hamlet, Claudius goes to church to repent showing a sense of right and wrong. In Measure for Measure, Angelo wrestles with his conscience before blackmailing the nun, Isabella – his conscience loses. Villains were becoming three dimensional human beings. “Is Iago a psychopath?” (Othello) Page was asked by a director. Before playing the role, the actor did research he shares. A vibrant conversation between Othello and Iago ensues. “Shakespeare had now looked into the very heart of darkness—and the darkness was looking back,” he comments.
The bard’s darkest play Macbeth used real curses because Shakespeare’s patron King James was an expert in demonology. (Page demonstrates the way to break a curse.) We hear from the Scottish general who would become king. After Macbeth, plays that follow are mostly romances. “They have their tyrants and their scoundrels to be sure, but they’re not delving to the root of evil like the great tragedies. I don’t think Shakespeare changed his mind about us; I think he just wasn’t willing to go there anymore, ” Page muses. The Tempest’s Prospero erupts next.
Before each scene, its story is described. We’re never lost. It’s not necessary to be familiar with the plays. Page shows an evolution, aspects of sin which are spot-lit with imaginative, dramatic consequences. Do we all, he asks, have this persona within us? As an actor, the question is important. And fascinating.
Patrick Page has played a considerable number of Shakespeare’s rotters as well as a variety of modern ones. His gritty, resonant bass and fantastic laugh lends itself to these characters as does this thespian’s flair for manifesting monsters without losing humanity (even, dare I say, as the Devil). The bard’s language is purveyed with thought and purpose as well as pristine enunciation. Like a sleight of hand magician, having practiced thousands of times, he makes presentation appear effortless. Glimpses of these men (tonight it’s men) makes one want to see how he would mine the psyche of someone in the course of a whole production.
The script is simply wonderful; illuminating, provocative, and deftly humorous. References to popular modern villains – including a brief Harry Potter theme (and the actor’s ready grin) – break tension and make Shakespeare more comprehensible.
Director Simon Goodwin creates just enough movement and gesture in the small space to personify each character and moment. Vocal changes are meticulous when Page plays interacting characters. Pacing, both within Shakespeare segments and addressing the audience is pitch perfect.
Lighting Designer Stacey Derosier and Sound Designer Darron L. West create marvelous atmosphere, morphing scene to scene with specificity and precision in Arnolfo Maldonado’s evocative set.
During a Talk Back, Page reveals part of the reason it’s such fun to play villains is their frequent panache. Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Hannibal Lecter are examples. He responds to a question about his favorite role referring to a recent appearance as King Lear, a character he hopes to continue investigating for years. Differences in Macbeth and his bride are noted. The rhythm of Shakespeare’s language is addressed. “Our tendency when we see something awful is to separate from it. Shakespeare will have none of that,” Page says raising a metaphoric eyebrow.
Photos by Julieta Cervantes
All the Devils Are Here- How Shakespeare Invented the Villain
Created and Performed by Patrick Page
Directed by Simon Goodwin
DR2 Theatre
103 East 15th Street
