THE DEVIL IS AN ASS AT PLYMOUTH DRUM THEATRE
The Peoples’ Company is open to anyone aged over eighteen and it supported by the Theatre Royal’s Creative Learning Department. They regularly put on full-scale productions within the Drum Theatre and 247 spoke to Matt Hall the director of their latest show, to ask what had attracted them this time to The Devil is an Ass…
Is it a bit of an off the wall choice?
Well, the People’s Company’s remit is to make use of neglected classics. Sometimes that can things that haven’t been seen for ten years or so but this time we’ve taken it to an extreme. I feel the play is timeless though and has as much to say to audiences today as it did when it was first written back in the 17th Century.
Can you tell us why?
It begins in hell with one of the Devil’s little demons, Pug, pleading to be allowed to go to Earth and cause trouble in the Devil’s name. His boss basically thinks he’s out of his league, as mankind is already embraced more evil than Pug could handle. He’s closer to the Dennis the Menace kind of trouble making we used to read about in comics and the Devil thinks mankind has already gone to a whole new level. Plus, that was back in the 1600s . . . imagine the difference today!
That’s the premise that keeps it timely then?
Yes, we’ve not made a conscious effort to set it in modern times but at the same time we’ve allowed for what’s relevant today. When Pug gets to Earth he launches into get rich quick scams and causing trouble with a nobleman and his trophy wife. You only have to watch the news these days to see we haven’t really moved a million miles away from those situations.
Have you made any alterations to the play?
We’ve trimmed to make it punchy and pacey and removed anything that was really only relevant to audiences hundreds of years ago. What we’re left with now seventy minutes of drama that’s really interesting to a modern audience and says something about their lives.
Has it been an interesting jump for the actors too?
Yes, the writer, Ben Jonson, was a contemporary of Shakespeare and so the language is of that time. We decided to not try and modernise the language, however, but to make it make sense in blank verse. Some have found it more challenging than others but we’re really happy with the results and it allows the audience to engage on a different level.
You think Ben Jonson would be pleased to see his neglected classic reenergized in the Drum then?
I’m sure he would, Ben Johnson was a bit of a larger than life character. He was England’s first Poet Laureate, accused of being involved in Guy Fawkes’s gunpowder plot and had an explosive temper which led to him killing an actor in a duel. We’ve not been as extreme in rehearsals for this play.
The Devil Is an Ass is running from Feb 16 until Feb 18 at The Drum, Plymouth.
