How Patrick Page Summons Devils in His New Solo Show
Scar in āThe Lion King.ā The Green Goblin in āSpider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.ā The titular green guy in āHow the Grinch Stole Christmas.ā The actor Patrick Page (āHadestownā) has played every one of those Broadway villainsāand he brings all that experience to bear in the Off-Broadway solo show he both wrote and stars in, āAll the Devils Are Here.ā
Listen to this weekās āStagecraftā podcast below:
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Subtitled āHow Shakespeare Invented the Villain,ā the show delves into all the ways the Bard depicted bad guys and evil-doers with depth, nuance and humanity that were, at the time, revolutionary. In the latest episode of āStagecraft,ā Varietyās theater podcast, Page theorized that his famously deep voice has probably contributed to his frequent casting in villain roles.
āThereās a strong tradition in the theater of those roles being more bass roles. I suppose that comes from opera,ā he said. And that tradition only contributes to the enduring habit that audiences have of judging a book by its cover: āPeople still reflexively attach certain attributes to certain kinds of people. Sometimes itās a vocal characteristic, or a physical characteristic, or behavioral characteristic. Weāre all guilty of that to some degree or another.ā
Page, whoās a classical actor in addition to his work in Broadway musicals, thinks Shakespeareās explorations of his villainsā humanity have become urgently relevant. āShakespeare has something to say to us right now,ā he said. āWeāre at a moment where we seem to choose sides very quickly and decide that someone is good or someone is bad, and then align with the good and identify ourselves with the good. I think itās a very perilous thing to do. It means that weāre not looking inward to say: Well, where might I be mistaken?ā
Also on the new āStagecraft,ā Page talked about when he grew into his deep voice and how each individual audience develops its own personality over the course of a performance. In addition, he discussed the many ways that hearing loss has impacted his work and his lifeāand all the ways things improved, both onstage and off, once he began wearing hearing aids. āI remember going outside and realizing there were birds in my neighborhood, because suddenly I could hear them,ā he said.
To hear the entire conversation, listen at the link above or download and subscribe to āStagecraftā on podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and the Broadway Podcast Network. New episodes of āStagecraftā are released every other week.
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