''The Creation of the World and Other Business'' is a play by Arthur Miller first performed in 1972.

Summary

The play is a

parable A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, w ...

that explores the theme of good-versus-evil by way of a comedic retelling of events in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. The first act is set in the

Garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the Bible, biblical paradise described in Book of Genesis, Genes ...

, where God creates Eve for

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

. God wants the couple to procreate, but doesn't know how to entice them into starting the process. Onto the scene comes Lucifer, who believes the existence of evil will make sex exciting, and he tempts the couple to eat the forbidden apple. God punishes Lucifer by tossing him into

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

and punishes the couple by expelling them from paradise. In the second act, Eve gives birth to

Cain Cain ''Káïn''; ar, قابيل/قايين, Qābīl/Qāyīn is a Biblical figure in the Book of Genesis within Abrahamic religions. He is the elder brother of Abel, and the firstborn son of Adam and Eve, the first couple within the Bible. He wa ...

. In the third act, Cain kills his brother Abel and is sent out as a wanderer.Review by Clive Barnes
New York Times, December 1, 1972

Productions

Miller's first work since '' The Price'' five years earlier, ''Creation'' stumbled along during rehearsals. Original director Harold Clurman and most of the cast, including Barbara Harris and Hal Holbrook, were replaced, and the

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

rewrote most of the material. After 21 previews, the Broadway production, directed by Gerald Freedman, opened on November 30, 1972 at the Shubert Theatre, where it ran for 20 performances. The cast included Stephen Elliott as God, Bob Dishy as Adam, Zoe Caldwell as Eve, George Grizzard as Lucifer, and Mark Lamos as Abel. In 1973, Tangent Theatre, an amateur theatre company from Walsall, won the rights to perform the play at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

. It was a critical success and Don Nunes, the director accepted the award for best production that year from Esther Rantzen. Tangent Theatre grew out of the West Midlands College of Education Theatre Society and performed all over Britain and Europe between 1969 and 1974. Miller reworked the play into a musical, ''

Up From Paradise ''Up from Paradise'' is a musical with a novel and lyrics by Arthur Miller and music by Stanley Silverman. In 1972, Miller's comedy '' The Creation of the World and Other Business'' closed after only twenty performances. Undaunted by its failur ...

'', which opened in 1974 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 2004, Citizens of the Universe's production of Creation of the World and Other Business was banned from playing at Greenville Technical College. In 2014, the Theater Department at

Orange Coast College Orange Coast College (OCC) is a public community college in Costa Mesa in Orange County, California. It was founded in 1947, with its first classes opening in the fall of 1948. It provides Associate of Art and Associate of Science degrees, cert ...

put on a rock and roll jukebox musical version of the play.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Creation of the World and Other Business 1972 plays Broadway plays Plays by Arthur Miller Fiction about God Fiction about the Devil Cultural depictions of Adam and Eve