Billy Markham, forgotten blues composer, agrees to sell his soul to the Devil in exchange for a final shot at fame & fortune and, in the smokey confines of a sleazy pool hall, a deal is thrashed out... but, being faced with the sulphurous consequences of losing, Billy tries to get out of the deal... the Devil is generous and gives billy a second shot, then a third... relishing the fiendish competition... until Billy calls his bluff... acknowledging that behind his own mask, a devil hides too...
Two other characters appear in the play: GOD a monomaniacal snooker champion, and 'Scuzzy Sleezo' a mephistophelising Snooker agent, both of whom, quite accidentally, are revealed by Billy as alter-egos of The Devil.
The story has been told many times: It's an archaic conflict... In this telling however the partners are the present-day citizens - The Devil; a pseudo-jovial businessman working hard to keep Hell running efficiently, and Billy Markham; a neglected composer of raunchy Bluessongs, secretly cherishing his loser status.
The late Shel Silverstein was a cartoonist, composer, lyricist, folk-singer and a writer. In this streetwise epic he established his qualities as a musical juggler of native images, irreverently juxtaposed in a vulgar setting where the musicality of the text and the vividity or its images have the effect of a Bluessong.
An hour of power; raw, uncompromising, streetwise. A performance not to be missed...