His Majesty, The Devil - A Play With Music @ Quaker Meeting House

What will strike people straight away about Elsewhere Ensemble is the incredible musical talent showcased in the violin performances. More than anything else, the music is what really steals the scene, creates the atmosphere and makes His Majesty, The Devil what it is: music with a play, more so than A Play With Music.

Aside from their violin playing, the actors themselves are all very skilled performers, including the silent figure who remains in the background of every scene, watching without comment the interaction between the young suitcase bomber and his majesty, the devil. Although surely the devil can't really be there, he must just be a figment, right? This is what the performance questions. What is the devil's role and is he really there? Or is he just a scapegoat invented by those who do - or plan to do - bad things? Where does faith come into all this, and who has it?

At times the play poses this in an incredibly thought-provoking way, but at other times it pushes too much into the over-exaggerated or becomes too preachy, as evinced in a particular sequence where the bomber tries to explain why he plans to do what he plans. The interaction of the violin music with the story is interesting, and something to witness; to properly see how they build out of each other. The story does hang a little behind, and at times it's the music that pulls it back up. Though the music is fantastically performed, it is not what is most needed to make a piece of theatre.