My overall impression
In complete defiance of Baudelaire, Old Scratch spends a good hour convincing us he DOES exist in “The Devil You Say,” and both he and master puppeteer Robin Walsh do a “damned” fine job of it in Walsh’s captivating show. It’s a shame every performance can’t be accompanied by the hellish weather LA had today—raining and overcast but bloody hot—the gloom fit the piece perfectly.
Walsh and a company of assistants (in particular pitch-perfect Kila Packett as Satan’s voice) delivered a strong, confident hour that began with an amusing Punch And Judy routine, wandered through several thought-provoking soliloquies on the topic of devilry by great writers of history, and ended with a sincere salutation from His Dark Majesty. But our host for the evening isn’t looking for sympathy or, as far as I could tell, souls to collect; he’s merely stating his case, and the more the case went on the more oddly chilling the revelations of the collected writers became. If there was an overriding theme it seemed to be that the devil, and his homeland, hell, reside in each of us foolish mortals as much as any notion of heaven does, a message that probably goes down easier when rendered by a beautifully articulated puppet. At any rate, it’s a fine, confident and fascinating show for those seeking some culture among the crass this June.
