''The Creation of the World and Other Business'' is a play by
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
first performed in 1972.
Summary
The play is a
parable that explores the theme of good-versus-evil by way of a comedic retelling of events in the
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...
in the Bible. The first act is set in the
Garden of Eden, where God creates
Eve
Eve (; ; ar, حَوَّاء, Ḥawwāʾ; el, Εὕα, Heúa; la, Eva, Heva; Syriac: romanized: ) is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the origin story, "Creation myths are symbolic stories describing how the ...
for
Adam. God wants the couple to procreate, but doesn't know how to entice them into starting the process. Onto the scene comes
Lucifer
Lucifer is one of various figures in folklore associated with the planet Venus. The entity's name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passa ...
, 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 and punishes the couple by expelling them from paradise. In the second act, Eve gives birth to
Cain. In the third act, Cain kills his brother Abel and is sent out as a wanderer.
[Review by Clive Barnes]
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
, December 1, 1972
Productions
Miller's first work since ''
The Price'' five years earlier, ''Creation'' stumbled along during rehearsals. Original director
Harold Clurman
Harold Edgar Clurman (September 18, 1901 – September 9, 1980) was an American theatre director and drama critic. In 2003, he was named one of the most influential figures in U.S. theater by PBS. and most of the cast, including
Barbara Harris and
Hal Holbrook
Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. (February 17, 1925 – January 23, 2021) was an American actor, television director, and screenwriter. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show that he developed called '' Mark Twain Tonight!'' ...
, were replaced, and the
playwright rewrote most of the material. After 21 previews, the
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
production, directed by
Gerald Freedman
Gerald Alan Freedman (June 25, 1927 – March 17, 2020) was an American theatre director, librettist, and lyricist, and a college dean.
Life and career
Freedman was born in Lorain, Ohio, the son of Fannie (Sepenswol), a history teacher, and Barn ...
, opened on November 30, 1972 at the
Shubert Theatre, where it ran for 20 performances.
The cast included
Stephen Elliott Stephen Elliott may refer to:
Entertainment
*Stephen Elliott (actor), (1918–2005), American actor
* Stephen Elliott (author) (born 1971), American author and activist
Sport
*Steve Elliott (footballer, born 1958), English footballer
*Steve Ellio ...
as God,
Bob Dishy
Bob Dishy is an American actor of stage, film, and television.
Biography
He is best remembered today for playing Sergeant John J. Wilson, Columbo's polite, respectful assistant in two episodes of ''Columbo'' ("Now You See Him" and "The Greenho ...
as Adam,
Zoe Caldwell
Zoe Ada Caldwell, (14 September 1933 – 16 February 2020) was an Australian actress. She was a four-time Tony Award winner, winning Best Featured Actress in a Play for '' Slapstick Tragedy'' (1966), and Best Actress in a Play for '' The Pri ...
as Eve,
George Grizzard
George Cooper Grizzard Jr. (April 1, 1928 – October 2, 2007) was an American stage, television, and film actor. He was the recipient of a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award, among other accolades.
Life and career
Grizzard ...
as Lucifer, and
Mark Lamos
Mark Lamos (born March 10, 1946) is an American theatre and opera director, producer and actor. Under his direction, Hartford Stage won the 1989 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and he has been nominated for two other Tonys. He is n ...
as Abel.
[
In 1973, Tangent Theatre, an amateur theatre company from ]Walsall
Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield.
Walsall is th ...
, won the rights to perform the play at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 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'', 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
Greenville Technical College is a public community college in Greenville, South Carolina. Founded in 1960, it began operation in September 1962.
Campuses
Greenville Tech currently has six locations in Greenville County:
*Barton Campus (main loca ...
.
In 2014, the Theater Department at Orange Coast College put on a rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm a ...
jukebox musical
A jukebox musical is a stage musical or musical film in which a majority of the songs are well-known popular music songs, rather than original music.
Some jukebox musicals use a wide variety of songs, while others confine themselves to songs perf ...
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