Theatre review: Ben Duke delivers a profoundly moving performance in Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me), Lost Dog Dance, Firkin Crane, Cork Midsummer Festival

In Paradise Lost, Ben Duke takes Milton’s epic tale and gives it an ingenious modern-day makeover. Picture: Zoe Manders

★★★★☆

When, at the start of this one-man version of Paradise Lost, the performer Ben Duke asks who has read John Milton’s magnum opus, a few hands shoot straight up, while I am still frantically racking my brain for remnants of the poem from my Leaving Cert English studies. At the end, I am compelled to seek Milton’s epic work out again, a testament to the power of this funny, captivating and profoundly moving performance, presented by Dance Cork Firkin Crane and Cork Midsummer Festival.

The enduring appeal of this dance theatre piece can be seen in the fact that it is still being performed for audiences, having initially been conceived in 2015. Duke is a trained actor and dancer, with a degree in English literature. Here all three combine, as he takes Milton’s epic tale of the battle for heaven, the fall of Lucifer into hell and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and gives it an ingenious modern-day makeover. 

Duke has an endearing and self-deprecating presence which belies the acuity of the piercing insights he offers to the audience. He literally and metaphorically plays God, conjuring up heaven, the universe and the first humans from his living room, to a distinctively pertinent soundtrack featuring everything from Handel’s Zadok the Priest to Into My Arms by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Clever allusions abound, from Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam to the destruction of the Twin Towers.

He seamlessly transitions from playing God, Lucifer, Adam and Eve to what is a representation of himself, a flawed romantic partner and more mortal father, pondering his own act of creation and the sometimes terrifying reality of becoming a parent. But what is personal is also universal — there are echoes throughout Paradise Lost, the original and Duke’s version, of our own rapidly shifting and unsettling world, and how we navigate life in the shadow of apocalypse. 

Duke acts out striking and humorous tableaux, from God asking Lucifer for his number in a nightclub to Eve getting advice from Lucifer/the serpent disguised as a therapist. It all builds to a heartbreaking conclusion, first with God taking human form, pleading for Jesus to be spared from crucifixion, then sitting under a torrent of pouring rain, surveying the damage his creation has wrought.