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"The Devil is an Ass"
 About the play and the production
The play:

At the start of The Devil is an Ass, Pug persuades Satan to send him to earth. Satan imposes constraints upon him: he may remain only until midnight, he must make do with a ready-made body (of a cutpurse just hanged at Tyburn) instead of a new one, he must use his ingenuity to obtain clothes, and he is to serve the first man he meets. Pug delights Fitzdotterel, the fool he encounters, partly because Fitzdotterel longs to meet a devil and partly because Pug agrees to work without pay. Fitzdotterel is duped by the swindler Meercraft, whose schemes include a patent to make leather from dogskin. He urges Meercraft to include him in a land reclamation fraud that will make him the Duke of Drowned Lands. When Pug tries to seduce Mrs. Fitzdotterel, she--thinking that her husband put him up to it as a test--informs on Pug, whom he beats. She tricks Pug into arranging a meeting with Wittipol, who loves her. In revenge, Pug tells Fitzdotterel, then recognizes too late that by preventing adultery he failed to profit his master's cause. When Fitzdotterel complains that his wife is not adapting to her forthcoming position as duchess, Meercraft and his broker Engine devise a new plan to fleece him. They urge him to send his wife to be instructed in deportment by a Spanish lady, to whom he should give a gift, a ring worth fifty pounds. Wittipol impersonates the Spanish lady at the home of Lady Tailbush, another of Meercraft's dupes. In disguise, Wittipol persuades Fitzdotterel to name Wittipol's friend Ingine, not Meercraft, as his trustee. Wittipol then reveals himself. Meanwhile, Shackles arrives and accuses Pug of stealing her cloths. She delivers Pug to the a prison cell. In jail, Satan visits Pug, reprimands him for being a less effective devil than the person whose body he occupies, and returns Pug to Hell, where he will punish Pug for letting humans outdo a devil. Meercraft persuades Fitzdotterel that what occurred was part of a plot between his wife and her lover to steal his land and that to stay clear of the law, he should pretend to be possessed by a devil. During his feigned attack comes news of Pug's mysterious disappearance from jail. Astonished that Pug really was a devil, Fitzdotterel tells the truth.

Our production:

This Jacobean comedy is given a 1920's cabaret flair highlighting the intermingling themes of vice and virtue. Remaining true to the Jacobean ideals of good food, good times, and good company, this production of The Devil is an Ass is performed in a dinner theatre, allowing maximum audience comfort and enjoyment. There is song (original music composed by Sam Belich), dance (Choreographed by Jeff Shade), and witty text written by one of Shakespeare's most worthy contemporaries - Ben Jonson. Approx running time is 90 minutes. The Devil is an Ass is a Manhattan Experimental Cafe under the rules of the Actors' Equity Association.