Theatre UNB’s first production of the year takes an updated romp through the biblical battle in John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost.
Canadian playwright Erin Shields’ stage adaptation of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost debuted to acclaim at Ontario’s Stratford Festival in 2018. The play’s first Fredericton production will be directed by Len Falkenstein, with technical direction and design by Trent Logan and an original score by Devin Rockwell. The show will feature a cast of eleven senior students in the UNB Drama program, joined by Fredericton theatre veteran John Ball as God the Father.
Paradise Lost tells the Christian story of the war in Heaven that resulted in the casting out of Satan and the bad angels, the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
Shields’ adaptation offers a witty, subversive, and decidedly feminist, contemporary take on the Bible. Milton’s anti-hero, Satan, is portrayed as a woman who archly comments on the absurdities and injustices of patriarchal theology while confiding her plans to the audience, and life for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is portrayed in all its banality, including details the Bible and Milton left out, such as how the tedium of their lives spent weeding and pruning all those plants is relieved by healthy doses of Edenic sex.
Paradise Lost takes audiences on a journey from the burning sulphur pits of Hell to angelic councils in Heaven, replete with scheming demons, thrilling sword fights, visits with everyone’s favorite mother-son comedy duo Sin and Death, and the universe’s very first—and very amateur—theatre production.
Upcoming Performances:
February 8 | 7:30 p.m. | Memorial Hall, UNB
February 9 | 7:30 p.m. | Memorial Hall, UNB
February 10 | 7:30 p.m. | Memorial Hall, UNB
February 11 | 7:30 p.m. | Memorial Hall, UNB
Tickets are available at the door via cash, credit, or debit, priced at $15 regular, $12 for seniors and the underemployed, and $10 for students. For more information, email lfalken@unb.ca or phone 447-3078.
