Stagebuddy Theater Review

Dream Up Festival Review: Devil Lay Me Down

After sitting through Ean Miles Kessler’s new play Devil Lay Me Down, you are certain to go home and call your family, thanking them for the mild dysfunction and charming embarrassments of your youth -- for it is nothing compared to this parable of broken love. Presented as part of the Dream Up Festival at Theater for the New City, Devil Lay Me Down tells the story of Julian Carthy as he returns home from an eight year stint in prison. Kessler shrewdly withholds Julian’s crime, promising his audience due deliverance should they be able to stomach it.

Home for Julian is his whiskey-swilling father, Marcus and his much younger live-in girlfriend, Ro, the kind of woman who greets strangers in her garters. Like Sam Shepard and Eugene O’Neill before him, Kessler follows the legacy of a long line of dramatists who remind us we can never really go home; we can never escape the ghosts of a shattered world. Kessler seduces us with a quiet intensity. His language is both lyrical and intricate, capturing the stories of the wretched.

As Marcus, Stephen D’Ambrose startles and mesmerizes. He is the preacher in this church, if the preacher were a foul mouthed lech with a taste for redheads. He manages to make an otherwise vile character sweet while still surprising you should you ever think you have him figured out. Equally potent is Joseph Ryan Williamson as the prodigal son, Julian. His vivid portrayal of Julian will stay with you long after you’ve left the theater.

Mara Gannon as Ro has all the allure of a red dress. Ro has one of the more heartbreaking monologues of the play and Gannon carries it with equal polish and brass. None of the actors are short in nerve, surely an homage to the finesse of director David Delaney who navigates tricky waters with ease. Delaney builds palpable tension knowing when to let the audience catch a breath.

With all its taciturn Western charm, Devil Lay Me Down is both agonizing and very funny. If you have the patience to let it unravel, you are certain to look the soul eating devil in the eyes. Kessler is a devotee of ancestry hard won, and his special gift lies in creating monsters that are sympathetic and crafting one hell of a story. Contrition, retribution, and good old fashioned sin color this Greek tragedy. An indictment of desire turned in, Devil Lay Me Down will have you pleading for the devil in you to grant you some peace.