🎭 Villainy and Human Natures | “All the Devils Are Here” @ Broad Stage

The book and musical and movie of Wicked all start from the simple question: “Are people born evil, or do they have evilness thrust upon them?” Although Patrick Page, in his one man show All The Devils Are Here (which we saw last night at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica), doesn’t mention Wicked, he does address the question through the eyes of perhaps the greatest storyteller of them all, William Shakespeare.

Page’s premise is that Shakespeare invented the villain as we know him: a character with an underlying motivation to do evil. Before Shakespeare, per Page, there were bad guys, but they were very broadly and shallowly drawn. They were the vices in morality plays, existing solely to tempt the good guys and demonstrate why one should follow a particularly moral path. But then came Shakespeare and Richard III.

Page walks the audience chronologically through Shakespeare’s villains, and shows how Shakespeare’s characterization of them changed and deepened over time. In the early days they were often based on physiognomy: if one looks bad, than one must be bad. Richard III was the first with his deformities, but then there were Jews and Moors and others that fits the stereotypes of the time. For each of these, Page not only explains the Shakespeare, but expertly does one-man scenes from the plays in question to demonstrate his point.

He then goes on to show how Shakespeare’s understanding of the villain changed over times, especially after he had his poetry period during the plague. By the time we get to Hamlet, we’re having villains we depth and underlying motivations, who often turn the stereotypes of the time around. As one moves towards the Scottish Play, the exploration of true sociopaths appear. He talked about the traits of a sociopath. He quoted a book, but I had to use Dr. Google, who had something similar: “Sociopath traits, part of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), include a significant disregard for rules and others’ rights, lack of empathy or remorse, manipulative and deceitful behavior, impulsivity, shallow emotions (like anger), and a tendency towards irresponsibility, often masked by superficial charm. They may exploit others, struggle with relationships, act aggressively, and have a weak conscience, but can differ from psychopaths in being more erratic and less calculating.” He pointed out that in our audience of 500 or so, there should be about 13 sociopaths, and he was sure we knew such people in our lives, or are seeing them in the political news. Here’s a more detailed list I found.

He spent a bunch of time discussing the characters and the motivations in the Scottish Play, doing a number of scenes therefrom. One of the things he pointed out is how Shakespeare did things different than other playwrights: Other authors created characters to make a point or teach morality. Shakespeare created characters that held the mirror up to ourselves, enabling us to see them as the flawed characters we all are. No one is the 100% noble hero or the 100% villain (well, except for the true sociopaths): we all have some heroic aspects, and some villainous aspects. Perhaps that is why Shakespeare’s characters resonate so.

Another thing that Page did was explain why Shakespeare was doing what he was doing. He showed where Shakespeare used conventions of the day, and where he explicitly broke those conventions in a way that Elizabethian audiences would recognize. He showed where the characters were using rhetorical tricks to make particular points. He showed the comparison to Shakespeare’s contemporaries. It truly was a master class in understanding a master, and it did make me want to go see some more Shakespeare (I haven’t seen all that much, and what I tend to see are his lighter comedies, vs. the darker plays). That unfamiliarity did hinder me at a few points where I got lost in the language.

Page also made an effort to map Shakespeare’s character archetypes to contemporary dramas. I don’t remember them all (because I don’t watch them all), but I remember him mentioning characters like William White and Tony Soprano as being drawn directly from Shakespearian characters, as well as folks like Scar in the Lion King.

All The Devils Are Here is a show well worth seeing. It will teach you a lot about Shakespeare, as well as helping to identify those sociopaths among us (and those we elect to public office). It runs at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica until January 25. GO SEE IT. Tickets are available through the Broad Stage.  There was a talkback after the show, which was also fun.

About my only regret is that we didn’t get a chance to run into Patrick Page’s wife, Paige Davis. I’m a long term fan of hers, and both she and my wife are gluten free, and they would have had fun talking about that.

Credits

All The Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain. Created and performed by Patrick Page.  Directed by Simon Godwin.

Production Team: Arnulfo Maldonado Scenic Design; Emily Rebholz Costume Design; Stacey Derosier Lighting Design; Darrow L. West Sound Design; Natalie Hratko Production Stage Manager; Stewert Productions / Bethany Stewert Tour Production Manager; Joe Burt Assoc Scenic Design; Avery Regan Lighting Supervisor; Rayn Matthew Hall Assoc Sound Design; Bryan Hunt Tour Producer; Mara Isaacs Executive Producer.

Administrivia

I am not a professional critic. I’m a cybersecurity professional, a roadgeek who does a highway site and a podcast about California Highways, and someone who loves live performance. I buy all my own tickets, unless explicitly noted otherwise. I do these writeups to share my thoughts on shows with my friends and the community. I encourage you to go to your local theatres and support them (ideally, by purchasing full price tickets, if you can afford to do so). We currently subscribe or have memberships at: Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre; Broadway in Hollywood/Pantages Theatre; Pasadena Playhouse; The Soraya, Chromolume Theatre ^NEW, and 5-Star Theatricals. We just added Chromolume Theatre as our intimate theatre subscription — we subscribed there pre-pandemic when they were at their West Adams location, but they died back in 2018. They started back up last year (but we had seen all their shows); this year, their season is particularly interesting: The Color Purple, If/Then, Elegies (during Hollywood Fringe), and Roadshow (nee Bounce) [by Steven Sondheim]. Mind you, these are all in the intimate theatre setting, and this will be the first time Roadshow has been done in Los Angeles, to my knowledge. Information on purchasing their 2026 season is here. Our previous intimate theatre, Actors Co-Op, seems to be on hiatus.

Want to find a show: Check out the Theatre Commons LA show list. Other good lists are the Theatre in LA listings; the TodayTix listings; and Theatermania.

I used to do more detailed writeups; here’s my current approach.

Upcoming

♦ Theatre / ♣ Music / ◊ Other Live Performance – Next 90ish Days (⊕ indicates ticketing is pending).

• January: ♦ Jewish for Dinner at the Santa Monica Playhouse; ♣ Tom Chapin @ McCabes.
• February: ♦ Applause at MTG; ♦ Amadeus at Pasadena Playhouse; ♣ Anat Cohen at the Soraya; ♣ Preservation Hall Jazz Band at The Soraya; ♣ Mandy Gonzalez in Concert: Broadway and Beyond at Broad Stage.
• March:  MoTAS Brotherhood Seder at Temple Beth Hillel; ♦ The Color Purple at Chromolume; ♦ The Play That Goes Wrong at 5-Star Theatricals;  ♦ Here Lies Love at CTG/Mark Taper;  MRJ Man of the Year Dinner at Temple Beth Hillel;  MoTAS Poker Tournament; ♦ Spamlot at BIH/Pantages.
• April: ♦ Kim’s Convenience Store at CTG/Ahmanson; ♦ Ride the Cyclone at The Main; ♣ Jeremy Jordan at The Soraya;  California Science and Engineering Fair at CLU; ♦ Flower Drum Song at East/West Players; ⊕ ♦ Real Women Have Curves at Casa 0101
• May: ♦ Anyone Can Whistle at El Portal Theatre; ♦ The Sound of Music at BIH/Pantages; ♦ Brigadoon at The Pasadena Playhouse; ♦ Hells Kitchen at BIH/Pantages.