The Devil and Billy Markham

Loved it Great performance by Aaron Lyons and Ruth Fox. Great music and staging. Well worth the ticket. Perfect fringe fare.... full review

This show was very engaging and enjoyable! It's basically a man reciting a Shel Silverstein poem in such a great and unique way of combining music and acting to really draw in the audience into this twisted story. The setting at 3 Clubs was a perfect venue for this intimate poem of a man gambling with the devil.... full review

Exactly what I was hoping for. Drinks, a band, the talented Aaron Lyons hopping between entertaining characters. Shel Silverstein. I had no idea he wrote this for Playboy. We always forget how subversive that man really was. I'm rambling. Go to the show. It's sexy and cool. ... full review

Shel Silverstein has always been a favorite author of mine, and you rarely see anyone take on his plays. I have never understood why that is because they are so funny, and at times, mind blowing brilliant. The way Billy Markham ends is one of those moments. It is the perfect ending that makes the most sense, but yet, it's so silly and unthinkable that you never see it coming. The band was excellent, but this is show is about two men, Shel Silverstein and Aaron Lyons, who commands the stage, a fearless performance, with an exceptional handling of the verse. I honestly thought at times the music could be a little quieter. A piece like this is so much about the text, it felt like that needs to be priority number one. That is a very picky cr... full review

A backwoods beat poetry noir performed among the clink of cocktails and the blanket of throbbing red lights and leering shadows. A sort of ritual with no purpose but dig and dig and dig, and as the search opens to rhyme and the rhyme falls into rhythm, the strange man in the fedora and a bottle in his hand leads us to wonder and marvel at both the maddening syncopation of his craft and the false duality of heaven and hell. It's common knowelege that Aaron Lyons already was a devil, a growling, horn-headed trickster drunk on Theatre Row and cackling at the meek light of stars, but in The Devil and Billy Markham he proves that he is a devil with a heart an closes us in that blanket of light and shadow. Congratulations on this labour of dark... full review

A fantastic second production from the Zenith Ensemble Theatre group and Actor/Director Aaron Lyons. Overall, the choice to not just produce, but to tackle Shel Silverstein's 'The Devil and Billy Markham' goes right along with Zenith's mission statement off the bat -- a dedication to raw, relentless truth telling, and to produce veraciously thought provoking theatre -- the epic poem is a beautiful and masterful piece of writing, and it's not soft on the story either, it's thought provoking, and dark, and full of layers, and ultimately it was told with a great deal of truth by its one and only star, Aaron Lyons, who plays both 'The Devil' and 'Billy Markham,' and also it's narrator. The production itself was unlike anything I have ever se... full review

This play was meant for Aaron Lyons! He gives incredible life and depth to the Shel Silverstein poem. Complete with a live band and a dancer, Aaron takes you on the journey to hell and back with Billy Markham. He effortlessly switches between characters and truly embodies each one. Make sure to catch a performance of this one. You won't be disappointed!... full review