The History of the Devil at The Brussels City Theatre

In the seventies and eighties, Clive Barker, the English horror and fantasy author, director and painter, wrote dozens of plays for his Liverpool theatre company. Only seven of them have ever been published. The most frequently performed is The History of the Devil. This monstrously long play is now being staged in Belgium for the first time.

The Devil asks for a retrial. He wants to be allowed back into Heaven, from which he was once banished.
‘Despite legislation, there are no certainties. Imagine that we were to try our loved ones. We would make a list of irritations. How long before we have built up enough resentment to hang them? And now we are going to try the Bad Guy. How long before we have enough reasons to like the Prince of the World?’

The History of the Devil is a tremendous challenge for students and is part of the course for the Master students in Acting at the RITS School of Arts. They and the stage technician students have worked on this production for twelve weeks. In the course of the process they have been through all the stages involved in making a theatre production. This project is part of an initiative by the RITS, Abattoir Fermé and NONA to build bridges between education and the world of work. It has been enthusiastically supported by several partners in the field.