(Ben Brantley’s article appeared in The New York Times, 2/4.)
That dog is the very Devil. No, seriously. That shaggy black mongrel is Satan incarnate, and he wants to buy your soul. Kind of cute, though, isn’t he, the way he perks up at the least sign of affection? You don’t know whether to scratch his belly or make the sign of the cross.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet observed that “the Devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape.” But he probably didn’t envision the scruffy canine form adopted by Mephistopheles in “The Witch of Edmonton,” a fascinating and seldom-seen Jacobean drama, which has been given a sturdy, insightful production by the resourceful Red Bull Theater company.
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