Cast announced for Mark Giesser’s THE DEVIL MAY CARE at Southwark Playhouse
Full casting has been announced for the world premiere of Mark Giesser’s The Devil May Care, an original adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple, which plays at Southwark Playhouse Borough from 8 January - 1 February 2025.
Giesser’s urgent and timely new interpretation is set during the Philippine-American War (1899-1913), against a background of imperial power, racial intolerance and terrible choices. It investigates the fundamental question at the centre of war – who is really good, and who is really evil?
The cast is led by Callum Woodhouse (All Creatures Great and Small), Beth Burrows (The Lady with a Dog, Upstairs at the Gatehouse/Tabard Theatre), and Richard Lynson (Rain Man).
The supporting cast is comprised of Jill Greenacre (The Brittas Empire), Enzo Benvenuti (The Boys From Syracuse, Upstairs at the Gatehouse), and Izyan Hay (Mission Impossible 8).
In a case of mistaken identity, Richard Conroe, a disreputable American trader, is arrested by the US military occupying the small Philippine town in which this drama is set. He is thought to be an English minister wanted on suspicion of treason – and the minister’s wife, Judith, is determined to reveal the true facts, even though to do so would mean certain death for her husband. Richard, however, is willing to keep up the act and die for crimes he did not commit. A self-defined disciple of the Devil, the motive of Richard’s willingness to sacrifice his life for a stranger is unknown.
Director Mark Giesser said: “Both in Shaw's play and in my adaptation, the two principal characters of Richard, the 'Devil's disciple', and Judith, the minister's wife, are faced with the question of sacrifice. For Richard, it's discovering if he's capable of forfeiting his life to demonstrate a personal honour with which he isn't credited and may not care about. For Judith, it's discovering whether she has the capacity to allow an innocent man to die in place of her husband. Both Callum Woodhouse and Beth Burrows are actors of depth and sensitivity who can wrestle with these questions while also expressing the nuances of Shavian irony in the story.”
