The Devil and Billy Markham, forgotten blues composer, competing in fiendish ingenuity, end up realizing that they are peers...
Frank Sheppard and Maarten van Hinte - respectively actor & writer of 1998's sensational O.J. OTHELLO, teamed up once again to bring Shel Silverstein's explosive six part monologue to the 1999 Edinburgh Festival.
Billy Markham, forgotten blues composer, agrees to sell his soul to the Devil in exchange for a final shot at fame & fortune and, in the smokey confines of a sleazy pool hall, a deal is thrashed out... but, being faced with the sulphurous consequences of losing, Billy tries to get out of the deal... the Devil is generous and gives billy a second shot, then a third... relishing the fiendish competition... until Billy calls his bluff... acknowledging that behind his own mask, a devil hides too...
Two other characters appear in the play: GOD a monomaniacal snooker champion, and SCUZZY SLEEZO a mephistophelising Snooker agent, both of whom, quite accidentally, are revealed by Billy as alter-egos of The Devil.
The story has been told many times: It's an archaic conflict... In this telling however the partners are the present-day citizens - The Devil; a pseudo-jovial businessman working hard to keep Hell running efficiently, and Billy Markham; a neglected composer of raunchy Bluessongs, secretly cherishing his loser status.
The late Shel Silverstein was a cartoonist, composer, lyricist, folk-singer and a writer. In this streetwise epic he established his qualities as a musical juggler of native images, irreverently juxtaposed in a vulgar setting where the musicality of the text and the vividity or its images have the effect of a Bluessong.
This is an hour of power; raw, uncompromising, streetwise. A performance not to be missed...
Reviews:
"This is a masterful rollercoaster ride of temptation and redemption." (Sunday Herald 15/08/99)
"Frank Sheppard has a magical voice that he stretches and twists like a clarinet." (The Guardian 11/08/99)
"...an enticing old time yarn, and Sheppard is a compelling performer...captivatingly intense." (The Times 12/08/99)
"Dice, drink and the devil - what more could you want?" (The Independent 11/08/99)
FRANK SHEPPARD (performer) - Biography
Frank was born in Newark, New Jersey USA. He made his acting debut in San Francisco in the second half of the seventies with the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Company. In 1984 he won the Ira Aldridge Acting Award in Los Angeles where he worked at the City Cultural Centre. His TV career has included appearances in Hill Street Blues and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
In 1986 he came to Europe where he worked with Rufus Collins in Coons's Carnival, with Michael Matthew in This Sporting Life and with John Leerdam in The Meeting by Jeff Stetson and Hotel Hotel by Norman de Palm. In Brussels he appeared in Flamma Flamma Fire Requiem by Nicolas Lens. On Dutch TV, Frank has appeared in Pleidooi, Cover Story and De Partizanen as well as films by Pip de La Parra, Paul Ruven and Alejandro Agresti. At Edinburgh 1998, he played the title role in the much acclaimed O.J. Othello at the Assembly Rooms.
The Devil & Billy Markham