By: Rosie Sharman-Ward
John Milton’s 17th century epic poem comprises ten books, thousands of difficult words and a myriad of characters. How, then, was one man going to portray all this through theatre, dance and comedy? Particularly when the characters include God, Lucifer, Adam and Eve? In a 75 minute show? The answer is with engaging charm, much hilarity, chickpeas and wonderful, warm humanity.
The one man who performs this feat is Sharif Afifi. He plonks a chair down in the middle of a plainly lit oval of plastic fabric. Having ascertained from the audience that most of us have not read the work, he sits thumbing through a tatty copy of Paradise Lost to find his bookmark. He is going to read us an excerpt to give us a flavour. Intrigued, we wait as he talks about how embarrassing it is to lose one’s place during a performance, then finally he finds it and reads – the final stanza. Laughing, we oblige him by closing our eyes “until you hear the trumpets” as he morphs from man to God.
The God that the writer, Ben Duke, has created is immensely relatable. Truly mankind has been created in their own image. Never mind firmaments and oceans – this God first creates a chair on which to sit and ponder what miraculous works they will bring into existence. Who wouldn’t need to sit down for that? This God is in turn a little pompous, a little anxious, often irritable and very funny when, to his chagrin, his creations fail to behave as planned.
Sharif Afifi plays all the parts required of him superbly. He becomes a laconic Lucifer, full of seductive charm, a naive Adam (an image I will not forget for a while!) and a confused Eve. Intermingled with these scenes are snapshots from the storyteller’s own life. We nod knowingly as he loses it a little, struggling to hurry his child into the car for school. We empathise with his anxiety that something awful will happen to his precious child when he is not there. The realisation that God is also a beleaguered parent is not lost on us.
The falling out and ensuing battle between a jealous Lucifer and God is so adroitly done. A skilful mix of blaring music, powerful dance, a rain of bodies draws to a climax with an intense, hushed moment between God and Lucifer: “I need you to fall”
Then God must begin again.
I am amongst those who became bogged down reading Paradise Lost and gave up, therefore I cannot comment on how much of the show is taken from the poem. This interpretation, however, reaches out from the stage and touches us with a God who messes up, strives to restart but still cannot create perfection. So endearingly human, so brilliantly woven out of humour, great music and expressive dance.