A dark love story, written in response to The Tempest, Leo Butler's I'll Be the Devil is set in occupied Ireland in 1775. Knowing that her soldier lover is leaving for England, a local woman unleashes a sequence of events that will result in tragedy for both their children.
With a poetic fearlessness, Leo Butler looks at what happens when a brutal foreign power is in intimate and callous contact with the primitive heart of an ancient society.
This is an epic play that marks an exciting departure from the stark realism of Butler's earlier work and that provides a powerful demonstration of Butler's maturity and ambition as a writer.
I was thrilled at the provocation of it, transfixed by its darkness.
