Cast

Synopsis

Presents a clergyman turned soldier, who willingly risks his life for a stranger. The play is the first one of Shaw’s paradoxical plays for Puritans that were to be the antidote to the titillating melodrama of the late Victorian Age. ‘The Devil’s Disciple’, ‘Caesar and Cleopatra’
and Captain Brassbound’s Conversion all contained unexpected attitudes that provoked controversy and punctured complacency. All three are still seen as supremely skilful pieces of stagecraft that reveal Shaw’s delight in turning received wisdom upside down.

Directors Notes

I would like to be able to say that anyone who has seen this play before must leave the theatre immediately. Seen for the first time THE DEVIL’S DISCIPLE has plenty of surprises, even today. Having seen sixteen HAMLETS I know only too well how it feels to anticipate every progression of the plot, so I hope this particular masterpiece of Shaw’s has been resting enough recently for it to come fresh and breathless to most of you. Shaw had an endearing habit of comparing himself to Shakespeare (favourably of course) and this play has the very Shakespearian quality of being both of its time and speaking loudly and clearly to succeeding generations.

Shaw himself said, ‘There never was a play more certain to be written than THE DEVIL’S DESCIPLE at the end of the nineteenth century. The age was visibly pregnant with it. It was certainly right for the time

I think you will find it still has something to say tonight.