Technology Allows Audience to Play Important Role in Immersive ‘The Devil Is a Lie’
By SHARON EBERSON
If you choose to see The Devil Is a Lie, and I sincerely hope you do, you will be asked to make choices.
And choices, as well all know, have consequences.
Quantum Theatre, for example, made the choice long ago to not play by the rules of the “well-made” play, and for that, Pittsburgh should be forever grateful.
From left, Lisa Sanaye Dring, Christine Weber, LaTrea Rembert (back)
and Sam Turich star in The Devil Is a Lie, a Quantum Theatre production
at the Frick Building, Downtown. (Jason Snyder)
The world-premiere experience now occupying a marble-and-bronze corner of Downtown is proof that nothing is out of bounds when it comes to profound, engaging theatrical storytelling.
The rule-breaking The Devil Is a Lie is one such world-premiere production. It’s Quantum through and through, tailor-made for thoughtful, fun-loving grown-ups, starting with cocktails and proceeding to an audacious, interactive event, with the distinct possibility of soul-searching to follow.
The plot brews and thickens and bubbles over into unexpected consequences, some driven by audience responses to poll questions. The audience, in this case, is cast as investors in fictional Voltaire, Inc., a hugely successful company run by the egomaniacal George Fast (Sam Turich), with his wife, Margarita (Christine Weber), who would seem to be the brains of the operation – if only George would allow her to get a word in edgewise.
After cocktails and light snacks celebrating the company’s billion-dollar success, gathered revelers are invited to sit surrounding an elevated platform, where George and a very pregnant Margarita are set to reveal good news about their family and Voltaire – motto: “Our Business Is Your Business” – with the hope securing re-investment in the company.
The event organizer and Voltaire’s newly named Chief Compliance Officer, Lucy (Lisa Sanaye Dring, of TV’s How to Get Away With Murder), gets the ball rolling, making sure everyone is seated and that the deejay, who goes by the name Dogg (LaTrea Rembert), knows his role.
Something is definitely a bit off from the start, and not just George’s egomania and misogyny.
For instance, Dogg, who arrives in a strange burst of light, is asked to read from a script and not touch the flashy high-tech board where he is stationed.
He begins to question why he is there, if not for the music. “I am at the wrong party,” Dogg declares, setting off a running joke.
As we journey down the rabbit hole of each character’s past, present and future, we, the investors, are polled via our smartphones to make ever-more consequential choices.
Under the direction of Kyle Haden, a show that depends on pinpoint timing — plus its audience being able to navigate technology — went off seemingly without a hitch on opening night.
LaTrea Rembert as Dogg and Lisa Sanaye Dring as Lucy argue about choices in Jennifer Chang’s The Devil Is a Lie.
Kudos to technical director James “Cubbie” McRory, technical specialist Anthony Del Grosso, scenic designer Sasha Schwartz, lighting designer C. Todd Brown and the rest of a team that transformed the Frick Building’s Tenant Innovation Center into a space where polling results and scene-stealing projections appeared right on cue, and where the presence of supernatural forces seemed plausible.
Bring your smartphones and participate simply by scanning the provided QR code. During polling, you can see how many participants are making choices – a high of more than 70 people voted on one poll on opening night.
You will be warned that there is not a lot of time to make your choices, even if none seems right to you.
It’s all part of the devilish game that playwright Jennifer Chang is hoping you’ll play, meant to give one and all a bit of insight into how the choices we make reflect the state of humanity in 2023.
The play is based on the Faust legend, about the fellow who trades his soul to the Devil for a wealth of worldly knowledge. Somehow, as Chang’s dark and funny play unfolded, I was instead reminded of that old Flip Wilson line, “The devil made me do it,” more recently used as a horror title in The Conjuring franchise.
Not so, according to “the lie” of the title. As it is put to a character asked to decide their fate, “God may have given you the ability to choose, but I give you choices.”
When Lucy – is it short for Lucifer? – gets pushback, she makes the point that it isn’t the choices that are at fault.
“The problem,” she says, “may be with what you want.”
Getting to the final choice of the night is a wild ride that takes some major twists and turns along the way.
In the beginning, Turich’s Fast is gleefully misogynistic and boorish to the max. You can tell by his bunched jacket sleeves and red sneakers he believes he is hipper than you will ever be.
As his wife, Weber is clearly distressed by her husband’s humiliating behavior but doesn’t call him out on it, defining their relationship without ever speaking of it.
Suddenly, with many a hint that it’s coming, George Fast is about to have his Faustian moment. He’s made a deal to become this rich and powerful, and it’s time to give the Devil their due.
Lucy drops her pretense and reveals that she is there to collect George’s soul for the Devil. George, of course, is in denial – after all, he made his deal with a manly Devil, not this young woman – and he tries to argue his case.
Dring’s Lucy, a worker bee turned devilish dynamo, is having none of it.
She tells not just George but all of his “investors” that they don’t believe she can carry out the Devil’s work because she is a woman. At first, she asks a male audience member to cry out, “I am the devil!,” to give it the authority we might believe in.
Then, Dring delivers a mesmerizing rant, both smart and hilarious, about inherent biases toward gender and race. It comes to a sudden end with, “But I digress,” she gets back to the job at hand.
Lucy talks about what we can only imagine is hell as “The Firm,” which could also be Fast’s company, specializing in data collections and “analytics” of everything and everyone. While in a highly emotional state herself, she laments that humans rely on feelings rather than data.
Her job would be so much easier if we would leave the soul-searching to her, punch the numbers and go by the polls.
As the evening progresses, the fate of each character takes turns that would be major spoilers if revealed, and so much of the experience is dependent on the surprises that lie within.
One revelation might be seeing Rembert in a new light, for those who think of the Pittsburgh-based performer mostly as an accomplished singer and dancer. Here, he gets to flash commanding acting chops and brings some sanity to the madness of making tough choices.
As “Dogg,” Rembert’s character bears a striking resemblance to a well-known double G, but with traits not often associated with the rapper. If you’re like me, you will run home and look them up.
The event flows nicely from the bar to staging areas, amid a combination of original 1902 touches that were there when Henry Clay Frick had it designed, as well as a postmodern look that a company such as Voltaire might embrace.
I recommend staking out your seat as soon as you arrive. Front-row seats may include some neck-craning and interactions with the actors, but there are other choices of how you may view the action. Also, heed the invitation to arrive at least 15 minutes before showtime. That’s cocktail time. On Friday, the actors hit their marks promptly at 8 p.m.
This brand-new, innovative work was green-lighted during its first in-person workshop by risk-taking Quantum artistic director Karla Boos. That’s an almost unheard of turnaround to a professional production. Yet The Devil Is a Lie already is a force to be reckoned with, featuring tour-de-force performances by a daring quartet of actors.
The show goes by in a quick 90-plus minutes, which should leave plenty of time for inevitable post-show discussions.
Going to the polls, I choose The Devil Is a Lie to feed the need for adventurous, one-of-kind theater-going.
Quantum Theatre’s The Devil Is a Lie runs through April 30, Tuesdays and Sundays at 5:30 p.m. and Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m., at the Tenant Innovation Center, Frick Building, 437 Grant St. Downtown. Tickets and info: https://www.quantumtheatre.com/thedevil/
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Our Posts, Reviews
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