Thinking about the devil in ‘Tom Walker’

Young Chang

While textbooks have portrayed a colonial America peopled with heroes

like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, playwright John Strand

wanted to focus on a different sort of colonial life.

The one led by non-heroes and average Toms like Tom Walker.

“I wanted to show the background history,” Strand said of his piece,

“Tom Walker,” being staged at South Coast Repertory through May 27. “I

wanted to explore what colonial American life might’ve been like . . .

the vast majority of people must have found it really arduous.”

The main character of “Tom Walker” struggles to make it financially

and is desperate for a quick-fix hand. He sells his soul to the devil, or

a black man he thinks is the devil, and the story proceeds on its ironic

path.

Strand created the play from Washington Irving’s short fable, “The

Devil and Tom Walker.” He calls it a moral sketch that he worked off of

to create something new.

“I wouldn’t even characterize this as an adaptation,” the writer said

from his Maryland home. “I find that in translating or adapting -- I’ve

done both -- there’s a point at which you have to move away from the

original. Even when you’re doing a translation, I think you have to make

it your own as a writer.”

And own it, he did.

Strand took the lesson of “don’t sell your soul to the devil” and

produced a historical tale that has implications for modern Americans.

“I began to think about a reality behind that story and who was this

person who appeared to be the devil to someone like Tom Walker,” Strand

said. “From there I created the character of Lucius, who had a whole

reason for posing as the devil.”

Wendell Wright, who plays the “devil,” found the playwright’s study of

history fascinating.

“This black man in colonial America -- how would he find a way to

survive and help other people survive?” Wright said. “[Strand] took the

ideas and superstition people had at that time and used them. It’s hard

to believe people would believe that, but the things we propose in the

play are not farfetched.”

Kyle Donnelly, who directs the six-person cast of “Tom Walker,” agrees

that Strand’s portrayal of the devil is unique.

“It has a lot to do with America at that time and race in America,”

she said.

The ending is surprising. Strand admits its immoral. But the twist is

meant to show that questionable partnerships and questionable compromises

have been around since almost the beginning of time.

Wright says it’ll make you think.

“It holds a mirror up to our society, and these people we worship who

have gained all this money and success and yet we don’t want to look at

how they got it,” he said. “What ‘Tom Walker’ does is make you really

look at these people.”

FYI

WHAT: “Tom Walker”

WHEN: 7:45 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

through May 27

WHERE: South Coast Repertory’s Second Stage, 655 Town Center Drive,

Costa Mesa

COST: $18-$47

CALL: (714) 708-5555