The Devil’s Passion

The Devil’s Passion

Sat 2nd-Mon 4th March at 7.30pm

33 AD. Jesus enters Jerusalem to fulfil his destiny. Satan ascends from Hell to stop him.

A battle begins - for the soul of humanity.

‘One of the most amazing evenings I’ve spent in the theatre.’ David Suchet

‘Radical & provocative: a devilishly clever retelling of the Easter Story.’ Mark Lawson, The Tablet

‘Magnificent, satirical, darkly comic, thoroughly stimulating production’ The Observer

‘A terrific performance, startlingly original … it crackles with great lines.’ The Church Times

‘Butcher dances these scenes exquisitely … breathtaking, fluid and haunting.’ British Theatre Guide

The Devil’s Passion 2023 audience Vox Pops

View audience reactions from 2019 production

View audience reactions from 2016

Hear DAVID SUCHET on The Devil’s Passion

‘A riveting, witty performance with fine attention to detail.’ British Theatre Guide

‘A serious and seriously fine piece of writing … a startlingly original presentation, a terrific performance, it crackles with great lines.’ The Church Times

Award-winning playwright, actor & human rights activist Justin Butcher, author of Scaramouche Jones, The Madness of George Dubya, Go to Gaza, Drink the Sea and Walking to Jerusalem, turns his pen to the greatest story of all - the Passion of Christ, set in a contemporary Occupied Palestine - and told by the Devil.

Inspired by his campaigning work and travels in Palestine, and framed satirically against a high-surveillance, ‘War on Terror’ backdrop, The Devil’s Passion offers a radically fresh perspective on the timeless narrative, an audacious hell’s-eye view of the Passion of Christ from a master storyteller, by turns comic, gripping, poetic and heart-stirring.

… Within the next hour, our operatives will isolate, engage and capture or kill the notorious leader of the most extreme, dangerous and contagious ideology to emerge in the modern era, whose terror activities represent the gravest threat to our interests across the region and the wider world. I refer, of course, to the radical preacher and populist demagogue Y’shua Bar Yessuf, the man known - by way of shorthand to our operatives - as ‘Jesus’ …

Part espionage thriller, part satire, part poetic meditation - Homeland meets Mistero Buffo meets Dante’s Inferno - in a ‘Holy Land’ characterised by harsh divisions, barriers, walls, alienation - a state of affairs which the diabolical narrator finds entirely satisfactory. Until, right from the heart of this suffocating, intractable scenario, the Passion story erupts. A radical, transgressive story of love transcending fear and hatred, of non-violence in the face of oppression, hope breaking down barriers, the victory of vulnerability.

Directed by Olivier Award winner Guy Masterson (Morecambe, Twelve Angry Men, The Shark Is Broken), designed by Sean Cavanagh (The Miracle Worker, In Praise Of Love, York Mystery Plays 2012) with a haunting and evocative soundscape by Jack C. Arnold (War and Peace, Wild Rose, The Woman in Black), richly textured video design by Damian Hale & Christian Krupa (The Chemical Brothers, U2, Elton John, Little Britain) and boldly atmospheric lighting by Tom Turner (Itaipu, Bat Out Of Hell, Swan Lake). The Devil’s Passion was adapted recently as a major new drama for BBC R3, starring David Suchet, broadcast in 2017, hailed in The Observer as a ‘magnificent performance’ in a ‘satirical, darkly comic, thoroughly stimulating production [which] raises many theological and ethical questions’ and in The Sunday Telegraph as a ‘vivid, comic and lyrical twist on

familiar events.’

‘A light sandblasting for jaded souls, a gleefully heretical flavour … Timely, beautifully written, entertaining and poignant … Butcher’s writing shines.’ Huffington Post

‘The nuance of Butcher’s writing and the intelligence and rigour of its theology make The Devil’s Passion such a worthwhile and forceful piece of theatre, deeply engaged with a radical conception of spiritual reconciliation … theological expansiveness and fascinating elasticity of thought.’ The Stage

‘There are not many actors currently alive who can play Jesus, and Judas, and the Devil, in the same performance and get away with it. And Justin Butcher does … with clarity, precision and a mastery of the craft. He is a privilege to watch. There is a reason the gospel is told again and again in media. There are subtle meanings, new voices, modern ideas to be read into it, old ideas which have new meaning … The Devil’s Passion is a great example of why we shouldn’t be afraid of doing it.’ **** Broadway Baby

‘Butcher dances these scenes exquisitely … breathtaking, fluid and haunting.’ ***** British Theatre Guide

‘Thrilling, searing … excellent and profoundly moving … A profound meditation on Christ’s Gospel of Love and Solidarity, enacted with a deceptive directness and simplicity which conceals its great theological and dramaturgical depths. The Devil’s Passion is a coup de théâtre. I urge you to see it.’ Independent Catholic News

www.justinbutcher.co.uk/devilspassion #Devilspassion