The DEVIL is in The DETAIL
Tolstoy meets modern Ireland in this tale of money, lust and human failings
‘Eugene is pretty dispassionate about sex… if nothing else, he believes, it keeps you fit’
Desire New Theatre, Dublin Date: until March 10 HHHHH
Leo Tolstoy’s name carries a lot of baggage. He has been variously called the conscience of mankind, the world’s greatest novelist and the symbol of the search for meaning in life. He also had strong sexual urges that didn’t go well with some of his theorising about abstinence.
No wonder he didn’t want his wife to see the manuscript of his short novel The Devil. She had transcribed all his great works by hand, including the monumental War And Peace and Anna Karenina, but he hid The Devil in his house and didn’t want it published in his lifetime.
It describes the unquenchable lust the main character, Evgeny, has for a peasant girl, Stepanida, while his wife continues to give birth to his children. Tolstoy’s wife would have instantly recognised this contradictory character as her husband.
Typically, he had returned to the Orthodox Church, then decided all churches were untrue to Christian principles; he was the only true believer. He even wrote his own version of the gospels. He attacked governments and the law. He wanted governments overthrown but as a pacifist wanted it done without violence.
He wasn’t even much of a democrat; he disagreed with voting and politically was almost an anarchist. Yet he had strong beliefs about education and freedom and put many of them into practice.
His wife had no illusions about Tolstoy’s inconsistencies.
In her diary she wrote: ‘All the things he preaches for the happiness of humanity only complicate life to the point where it becomes harder for me to live.
‘His sermons on love and goodness have made him indifferent to his family.’
Peter Reid’s one-man dramatisation, first performed in 2014, sets the story in modern Ireland and renames it Desire, with Paul Kealyn as Evgeny, now called Eugene Hyland.
The unmarried Eugene has returned from London to inherit the family wealth and estate ahead of his more flamboyant brother. Eugene has had sexual liaisons in London but he’s pretty dispassionate about sex, or so he believes. If nothing else, he believes, it keeps you fit. When the beautiful Latvian, Stepanida appears on the scene, he’s willing to use her until he marries a more socially acceptable woman, at which point he discards Stepanida. But lust is not so easily kept in control.
Tolstoy’s fluctuating beliefs are a testament to his constant struggle to find the truth about life. He even wrote two endings to this story, neither of them pleasant or complimentary.
Eugene is not impressed by politics yet politics plays an important part in the resolution of his problem. He finds it hard to blame himself for his failings. Stepanida is the tempter, he’s the victim. The play presents the struggle between a spoiled, ruthless, man, individual responsibility and the machinations of politics.
Paul Kealyn gives a thoughtful performance of Eugene as a conflicted character in the demanding 80-minute adaptation, despite the limited possibilities for creating additional characters.