I'll Be the Devil

Commissioned and produced by the RSC in a production that opens at the Tricycle Theatre, London in February 2008 Publication timed to coincide with the premiere as part of the RSC's 'Complete Works' season Leo Butler was awarded the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2001 Written in response to The Tempest, the play is an exciting departure from the gritty realism of Butler's earlier work and will have a broad appeal to theatre enthusiasts

An epic new play by Leo Butler written in response to The Tempest, commissioned and produced by the RSC and opening at the Tricycle Theatre, London, in February 2008.A dark love story, written in response to The Tempest, Leo Butler's I'll Be the Devil is set in occupied Ireland in 1775. Knowing that her soldier lover is leaving for England, a local woman unleashes a sequence of events that will result in tragedy for both their children. With a poetic fearlessness, Leo Butler looks at what happens when a brutal foreign power is in intimate and callous contact with the primitive heart of an ancient society. This is an epic play that marks an exciting departure from the stark realism of Butler's earlier work and that provides a powerful demonstration of Butler's maturity and ambition as a writer.