By George D’rangePhotos by Ronnen Zilberman
“I will crucify you all!” proclaimed director Tui Scanlan, when I asked him to comment on his up-and-coming production of Shel Silverstein’s The Devil and Billy Markham, currently showing at Ong King Arts Center. Tui also plays the Devil himself and adapted this bawdy poem for the stage. And despite any fond childhood memories one might have about Shel Silverstein’s work (The Giving Tree), this is a decidedly adult tale, originally published in Playboy Magazine.
The Devil and Billy Markham can probably be best described as one part Faust, one part Dante’s Inferno, with a liberal sprinkling of Larry Flynt thrown in for humor and raunchiness. The basic premise is of two-time loser Billy Markham, (Newcomer Sylvan Gaskin) gambling with the Devil on Music Row in Nashville in a high-stakes, winner-takes-all sucker’s game. The dice are loaded, the desired roll is thirteen, and the stakes are of course fame and fortune or Billy’s soul, to be paid I full, immediately upon losing. As messed-up as that may sound, it only goes from bad to worse, as Satan continues to tempt, taunt and torment Billy with more gambling prospects, further denigrating the already damned Billy Markham. In the process, Billy gambles away everything, or rather everyone he ever loved for the chance at freedom from Hades. When at last Billy finally gets Satan’s goat, one would expect this Nashville nobody to have learned his lesson. No such luck, because Billy has none, you see.
Billy is continuously tempted in the earthly realm, and even dares to cross cue sticks with the Almighty himself, on a wager of course. Without revealing anymore than I already have about this increasingly vulgar and hilarious comedy of sins, I can tell you that it actually continues to get worse before it gets better. Actually, scratch that, it doesn’t get better, at least not for Billy and his arch-nemesis, Old Scratch. If you like the idea of seeing the Devil get screwed, (in the figurative sense) you might just enjoy this tale, but if you are easily offended, it might be best to keep your distance. Mr. Scanlan takes his role in this play very seriously you see, and will most likely suffer no religiously biased comments from the peanut gallery. When it comes to salacious and irreverent comedy, Tui Scanlan is dead fucking serious. But as the expression goes, “Better the Devil you know…”
The Devil and Tui Scanlan
Think you’re bad? Think you’re dark? Meet Tui Scanlan, AKA the antagonist in his own production. Truth be told, not to undermine the other players that make this production possible, Tui makes the play, Tui is the play. At about 6’4”. wearing a size 18 shoe, he makes for an intimidating figure, and If I didn’t know him, I really wouldn’t want to run afoul of him. But there is a subtle constant smirk on his face that tell you that a different punch is coming, and you will fall down… laughing. This combined with an almost innate sense for this kind of villainous, yet jovial role makes for a great M.C., which essentially the Devil’s bit in this comedy. This role requires a generous helping of kolohe, and he even went so far as to infer that he did not so much choose the role, as the role chose him.
It also helps that the director is no stranger to this tale. As I myself am no stranger to this cast and crew, it was never my intention to critique or review, as much as to give some background and program information on this production, and allow the theater-going public to make up their own minds about it. So let us begin with the most unclean instigator of this Faustian feast, Little Horn himself,
Actually, to those who know him, Tui’s a hell of a nice guy, if a bit Machiavellian in his tastes, and he elected to present this play as his thesis in stage performance in college, although for various reasons, the deans decided he could not both present and perform in this particular play. They also said he could not submit this presentation in Nationals, which Tui decided to do against their “better” judgment, and took second place. He asserts that he could not take first due to the aforementioned raunchy nature of the material. This irony of Tui’s success is that he expelled for his insubordination, although he had also placed first for best performance in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
And the actual selection of this play turned out to be a fluke, as when the dealine was drawing near, Tui’s girlfriend at the time returned from the local bookstore with a copy of a book entitled, Oh Hell in hand, the contents of which were two poems, including Shel Silverstein’s The Devil and Billy Markham.
During Christian “See” Ellauri’s production, Hip-hopalypse, there was talk around Ong King that Tui would be presenting the next play, so I went online and found a transcript of the poem in order to get caught up with the scene, hoping to get an inside scoop on the production. I have to admit, it’s been a wild ride, and Hell has never been so much fun! Watching the seedling of sneak previews and the open rehearsal grow into the confident, slathering three-headed hound of Gehenna has been an experience in itself, and makes me anxious to participate in underground, guerrilla theater or performance art. And make no mistake, this is true underground theater, not unlike Taurie Goddess’ Cruel Theater, but with less audience participation, or deliberate emotional discomfiture.
The Hounds of Hell
While this play admittedly cast mostly of newcomers, a few of the ensemble have previous experience in performance of some kind, such as Harumi “The Hymn” Ueda, (portraying the role of God in Billy Markham), played the role of “Dune” in Hip-Hopalypse. It is clear from my experience with these people that they were all cast for their individual charismatic personalities to fit the roles for which they were chosen. Sylvan Gaskin is a hard working and dedicated jack-of-all-trades, who always appears slightly world-weary, but it’s only fatigue, and behind that is also an extremely humorous and thoughtful person. Ashley Yamaguchi and Ayme Ueda were also well chosen for the respective roles of Billy’s true love, and Ayme as his daughter. One of the theatrical bright spots in this performance comes from an unexpected source in the personage of John Leon Guerrero, who gives a great performance as Scuzzy Sleazo, a gambler’s pimp, or “promoter” as the character sells himself. This is role key in recruiting Billy for the job of shooting pool with the Lord.
But as I said before, it is probably best to decide for yourself if this play is up your alley, so a sneak preview can be had at http://www.youtube.com/OngKingLive. Unfortunately, it was necessary to cut a date or two from the original schedule, so by the time this is published there will be only two dates remaining: Friday November 9th & Saturday the 10th. This may be a controversial and obscene bit of theater, but if you like to see the Devil get boned, and his horns dulled instead of honed, you may well enjoy the Hell out of this play’s resolution.
The Devil and Billy Markham
Nov. 9 & 10, 8:00 PM, $10 at the door only.
Ong King Arts Center, 184 N. King St.
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