The Devil's Disciple

The Devil's Disciple by G.B. Shaw is a funny play with a serious design. The plot of the play is mostly a joke: there is a hero scene and a heroine scene and a disputed legacy and a last minute gallows rescue, but none of these things happen the way they should. The seriousness is in Shaw's own bored attitude with the melo-dramatic happenings. This comes through best in the amazing words of Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne who appears in the third act when the British are doing their best to lose the Revolution.

The play starts when the hero, Dick Dudgeon, who is the black sheep of a pious New England family, gets a legacy. This isn't right, for black sheep don't usually get legacies and heroes don't usually triumph at the beginning. When Dick later decides to be heroic he does so just because he feels like it, and not for the love of the minister's beautiful young wife, as he should. And when the elderly minister should become heroic, he's a coward. In the end, however, the minister appears with pistols, and both he and Dick Dudgeon find their "true vocations."

Because its plot is almost non-existent, The Devil's Disciple is a tricky play to tackle: unless all the funny lines about George III, the British army, heroism and relatives are held together by the actors, Shaw's own attitude will be lost. What the play needs and what the Lyric Theatre production doesn't always give it, is careful timing to get the funny sayings across. Though the actors do well in the smaller scenes, the pace is harried enough in the group scenes that some of the wittier lines go by too fast. This weakens the performances of the main characters--Gaudentius Lee in the title role, John Timmons as the minister and Lucia French as his wife. Of these three Lee seems the best; Lucia French isn't always convincingly confused as a woman who can't understand heroism without renunciation.

The minor characters, however, are sharper and more consistent. As the "only irregular daughter" of the late Mr. Dudgeon Sr., Patricia Goest is really appealing, and Wayne Maxwell is a fine half-wit brother of "the devil's disciple." There are also several British soldiers marching up and down in front of Darwin Reid Payne's clever set. Exhuding pompous noises, Harvey Widell makes them a fine sergeant. The play's best role, that of General Burgoyne, is given the night's most polished performance by Stanley Jay. Bored with the whole war, Burgoyne says some magnificent things. When Dudgeon asks near the end to be shot like a soldier, the General answers, "Have you any idea of the average marksmanship of the army of his majesty King George III?" Dick chooses the noose.

Shaw's own attitude is close to Burgoyne's. This doesn't always come through in the Lyric Theatre's production which makes the humor often seem incidental. Directress Grace Tuttle has gotten some very entertaining seperate scenes however--especially in the last act--and these make the play good fun.