Word: deviling
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Devil's Disciple. The Summer School Repertory Theater inaugurates its three-show season with a very funny production of George Bernard Shaw's unwitting tribute to the U.S. bicentennial. John Glover, all flamboyant charm in the title role, and James Valentine, mugging uproariously as "Gentlemanly Johnny" Burgoyne, head a distinguished professional cast...
...improbability, The Devil's Disciple, thanks to Shaw's gift for dialogue and character, is a highly entertaining work, and the Summer School Repertory Theater's spirited production does it ample justice. With the help of a distinguished cast, director Richard Edelman has mounted a very funny, generally convincing version of Shaw's unwitting paen to the U.S. bicentennial, though even Edelman and company can't quite make Dudgeon's transformation into a man of the cloth...
...Devil's Disciple, Shaw's misogyny is in plain view; the two leading female characters are depicted mainly as obstacles to the fulfillment of worthwhile male goals. While Martha Farrar as Mrs. Dudgeon satisfactorily avoids caricaturing the crotchety old woman, Wendy Fulton is less successful as Judith Anderson...
Aside from the playing of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" between acts, Edelman has directed The Devil's Disciple without undue bicentennial self-consciousness. His cast goes through its paces against a background of colonial oranges and browns that dominate Donald Soule's carefully-crafted sets, and the play's focus properly remains on individual, rather than national, transformation...
...distance ourselves from the illusion he presents. At one point, after Swindon, in the face of disastrous war news, declares his faith in his countrymen's devotion. Burgoyne cuttingly asks him if he's writing a melodrama. With all this self-consciousness, it's not too surprising that The Devil's Disciple never quite compels our belief. But neither does it matter, since the Summer School Repertory Theater, inaugurating its season with polish and style, so winningly compels our laughter...