The Devil Inside Him: New Theatre, Cardiff

The Devil Inside Him, National Theatre Wales’s latest production, written by an 18 year old John Osborne, was performed once and then forgotten, until now. Rescued from the bowels of the British Library, dusted off, rehearsed, and revived, The Devil Inside Him shows Osborne as a rough diamond, developing and experimenting with ideas that would later make his name as the original ‘Angry Young Man’.

The production, set in the Welsh Valleys, portrays Huw Prosser’s (Iwan Rheon) struggle against stifling, civilised, middle-class, society. Bullied mercilessly by his peers, unloved by his god-fearing father, Mr Prosser (Derek Hutchinson) and his meek mother, Mrs Prosser (Helen Griffin), Huw struggles to find a place for himself in a society that is cruel, ugly and meaningless.

The Devil Inside Him has dated significantly, and certain aspects seem extremely old-fashioned to a modern audience particularly the tight grip religion has on the Prossers and the wider community, as well as the tremendous power wielded by Mr Gruffydd, the Minister (John Cording). This lack of relevance has detrimentally affected the production, although we are shocked by Huw’s behaviour, and disturbed by his increasingly erratic and troubled mind, it is at times, hard to empathise with any of the characters. The world created is too far removed from our own to say anything of note about our own society, but is not far enough to be of any historical significance. Furthermore the young Osborne has inhabited his play with a number of cliched, almost cut-out characters, such as the seductive maid, Dilys (Catrin Stewart), the loose-lipped, hired help, Mrs Evans (Rachel Lumberg) and the lecherous, and loose lodger Mr Stevens (Steven Elliott).

Despite the play’s weaknesses, Elen Bowman’s production itself is impressive. All the actors give strong performances; Rachel Lumberg shines as Mrs Evans, the gossiping, nosy maid, bringing humour and mischief into her scenes. Jamie Ballard, as Burn the medical student, gives a powerful, confident performance, effectively depicting his character’s inner conflict as he becomes Huw’s confidant. However, the best performance of the night, without a doubt, is Iwan Rheon’s exceptionally intense and brooding portrayal of Huw. Rheon skillfully masters Huw’s fluctuating, liquid-like temperament, as he transforms from a seething mass, ostracised from the rest of the world, into an individual compelled by his rage and fury to commit murder.

The production is technically accomplished; the costumes and set re-create the comfortable, claustrophobic mid-century, middle-class home. Whilst the condensation gathers on the windows, the wind howling outside the door, and the constant attempts to escape from the elements by closing the heavy living room curtains only accentuate the divide between the events within the house, and the world outside. The final scene in the production, as Huw ascends the stairs, and the upper floor of the house is finally revealed is aesthetically breath-taking. The upper floor of the house is completely ruined and the landscape is devastated, this creates a marked contrast between the oppressively ordered house below, and the utterly destroyed scene above.

The production is a success, due to the technical brilliance of its staging and the almost faultless acting. The play itself might not have been a masterpiece, but this is an unfair criticism of the first play of a young dramatist learning and developing his craft, who would go on to great things.