Review: One of 2024′s best shows, Patrick Page’s ‘All the Devils Are Here’ puts evil at Guthrie center stage

Revenge killer John Wick. First Lady-turned-President Claire Underwood of “House of Cards.” Mob boss Tony Soprano.

If you like these compelling villains, raise a glass to Shakespeare, says Patrick Page, the Broadway actor who’s like a Michael Jordan of the stage.

Page tells — then shows — what he means in “All the Devils Are Here,” his solo work that’s up in a must-see production through Nov. 17 at the Guthrie Theater.

Delivered by an actor who played usurper Scar in “The Lion King” and also originated the Broadway role of Hades in “Hadestown” on Broadway, “Devils” is hands down one of the best shows of the year.

In the moments when it doesn’t have blackouts, dramatic lighting and powerful sound effects, Simon Godwin’s production works like a kind of fireside chat where the charismatic and captivating Page is both the chatter and the fire. He sketches Shakespeare’s evolution about the idea of evil through his plays, showing how one man’s growth had a global impact on theater, specifically, but also on storytelling at large.

“Devils” is subtitled “How Shakespeare Invented the Villain,” and Page takes us through how evil was represented in entertainment onstage in Elizabethan England as the Vice. This character was like the Devil’s assistant and, Page insists, is similar to the little devil on Homer Simpson’s shoulder.

“People didn’t care that the Vice wasn’t fleshed out or that it made villains of others, such as those born out of wedlock or with congenital abnormalities,” Page says. “Shakespeare made the Vice sexy.”

For Page, there’s a Shakespeare before the plague, when his villains were embodiments of evil in the quasi-religious understanding we would call stereotypes today, and a Shakespeare after, when he provided back stories and motivations for such characters.

Those two years when theater shut down in England — starting in 1593 — gave Shakespeare an opportunity to grow even more in ways that he could never have imagined. That development was triggered by his mistress, the “Dark Lady” to whom he wrote sonnets.

She was not “Shakespeare in Love” star Gwyneth Paltrow, Page quips in the show. “She had dark skin, dark hair and dark eyes,” he says, “and she rocked Shakespeare’s world, making him fundamentally question his own biases.”

When Shakespeare came back after theater reopened, his villains were much more fleshed out, like Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice,” and Lady Macbeth.

In “Devils,” Page alternates explanation with work examples, breaking into vivid dialogues from the plays. These excerpts display his prodigious acting talent. And they bring clarity and enlightenment to the Bard’s work, equally for those who think of Shakespeare as some quaint old timer as well as devotees who believe him to be a cathedral of theatrical delights.

Page is funny, conversational and thoroughly engaging throughout the show’s 90 minutes. He has a deep well of knowledge but speaks not as someone who is superior to his audience — one of the things that have put off many a would-be convert — but as a layman who also is a superfan.

That relatability endears him to his audience and helps us believe that he’s just an ordinary guy, albeit one who’s a huge star who wants to share the sparks of a love developed over a lifetime of study.

Those sparks scintillate at the Guthrie.

Who: Written and performed by Patrick Page. Directed by Simon Godwin.

Where: Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2nd St., Mpls.

When: 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 1 & 7:30 p.m. Sat., 7 p.m. Sun. Ends Nov. 17.

Tickets: $29 to $83. 612-377-2224, guthrietheater.org.