Paradise Lost

Rabbit in a Hat Productions—School of Contemporary Dancers

This is a 45-minute one-man show from Paul Van Dyck of Toronto. It had elevated, complex language throughout, and while that itself can be appreciated, it made this play a little hard to follow. Was some of the script taken directly from John Milton? The two basic parts of this story are well-known. The first is Satan’s defiance of God and his consequent exile from heaven with his other fallen angels. The second is Satan’s meddling with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, leading to their own Fall. Of course, Milton took a few lines from the Bible and greatly elaborated upon them, creating his monumentally long work.

In the first part of this production, recounting Satan’s fall, Dyck often speaks into an old-style microphone on a stand, like some sort of demagogue from the first half of last century. Sometimes voice modification is used to achieve a truly demonic-sounding voice, and it made me think of the leaders who promise the world but end up doing unspeakable damage to it instead. In the second part, Dyck uses two puppets to represent Adam and Eve, and voices both parts, as well as the demon who talks to Eve.

This production also uses excerpts, mostly instrumental, from a large selection of Rolling Stones songs as occasional musical accompaniment. Sometimes Dyck performs with his shirt on, sometimes with it off, and the significance of this wardrobe change was lost on me. Greater familiarity with the fine points of the source material definitely would have increased my appreciation of this show.

Konrad Antony