Tony nominee Patrick Page's All the Devils Are Here: How Shakespeare Invented the Villain is transferring mediums!
The solo play, which is currently traversing the United States in a series of limited engagements, will receive a book adaptation, set for release in 2026.
Page shared the good news on his public Instagram page with the following caption: "I’m excited to announce that Simon and Schuster have asked me to develop the ideas from my one man show All the Devils Are Here into a full book, to be published in the Spring of 2026.
Here is the blurb from the literary trades: “Tony Award-nominated actor and playwright Patrick Page’s ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE: HOW SHAKESPEARE INVENTED THE VILLAIN, adapted and expanded from his one-man show, arguing that Shakespeare invented the modern villain, charting the Bard’s evolution and connecting examples like Iago, Macbeth, and Shylock to our modern villains, including Breaking Bad’s Walter White and House of Cards’ Claire Underwood. Published by Larry Hughes at Simon & Schuster, for publication in spring 2026, managed by Josh Pultz at Amplified Entertainment.
"In the meantime, the stage version will continue its journey at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis this October and November, and at the Shakespeare Theatre in DC this December. Hope to see you there!"
Created and performed by the Hadestown star, the show explores "the twisted motivation and hidden humanity at the heart of Shakespeare’s greatest villains." Moving through the evolution of some of the iconic antagonists of the stage, Page examines over a dozen characters. Simon Godwin directs.
As Page told Playbill in an interview, “The journey of the play begins in 1590, when Shakespeare first emerges as a playwright in London, and then moves chronologically through the canon using these particular characters,” Page explains. “These wrongdoers, these malefactors, these outcasts, rogues, scoundrels trace Shakespeare's evolution in his understanding of what a human being is. Our fascination with villains is our curiosity about what a human being is capable of, and what we ourselves might be capable of, were we pushed to the extreme.”
Visit AllTheDevilsPlay.com.
