Lucifer Tonight

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Four and a half years ago Don Becker grabbed attention at The Bug Theatre with his play Lucifer Tonight with Nils Kiehn narrating Lucifer’s unique perspective on society, Biblical history and theological ramifications.

In an updated version to include more recent events, Lucifer Tonight once again plays the Bug. Directed by Dan Heister, Kiehn shares the stage with Dominique Leavitt giving Lucifer a broader perspective with male/female overtones. A brilliant move adding depth to the already mind-blowing humorous, poignant, thought-provoking script.

Dressed in black body suits augmented with red licks of fire, Kiehn and Leavitt bring Lucifer to life with Becker’s highly-punctuated poetical style. Becker demonstrates with ingenious detail a more thorough comprehension of Biblical history than many contemporary theologians. Tying ancient myths with current vernacular, he hits home frequently referring to the next-door neighbor. Tying well-known television shows together with the historical Biblical stories, he turns David Letterman’s top 10 list into the Ten Commandments. Or, if you prefer, the other way around. So poetically crystal clear, are Becker’s images, it is as though he has crawled inside the Holy Scriptures making them his own. With Kiehn and Leavitt to add body, face, expression, and lyrical pointed tone, Lucifer Tonight comes alive as a melody of the universe.

Not everything said will sit comfortably in the arms of the beholder, but then neither does Scripture if one reads it honestly.

On a striking black and red set with harsh stones, pointed crags bathed in red designed by Kenn Penn and punctuating lighting designed by Verl Hite, Lucifer Tonight speaks with a voice that takes thought out of the abstract to lay it laughing, prodding, poking at our own front door.

n stage Heister hides behind the persona of the Arch Angel Gabriel mixing drinks for Lucifer as a bartender. Becker himself sits in the front row to interact when he can’t help it as the fallen Angel Beelial.

Starting at the beginning, Lucifer explains, “I wanted to be an artist, to create something, One Thing.” Time is Lucifer’s jumping off point. Time and evil. “I can’t take credit for all evil. Some evil is mine, some is God’s, and some evil is strictly human. And some human actions thought to be evil are merely examples of brutish human stupidity.” Starting in the garden with Adam and Eve, Lucifer works his/her way to a Moses dissertation, into dissecting stories of Jesus bringing them out of the 2000-year reign to the right here right now.

Some words and phrases aren’t very funny, some are designed for cringing, but there is a great deal in every day life that isn’t very funny, and frequent events that make us cringes. Hidden in the poetry and verbal dance magnificently choreographed by Heister, Kiehn and Leavitt are golden kernels of truth, of life, of celebration.

It would behoove Becker and the Bug to revise Lucifer Tonight every five years. A prominent, vital piece of advant-garde intelligent theatre demands not to be seen but experienced and internalized.