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A play written by Clive Barker, detailing the trial of Lucifer. The audience attends as would-be jurors and are transported back in time via vignettes of testimony that illustrate the Devil’s actions throughout history. Notable appearances in the court and during flashbacks include Dante, Jesus Christ and Lilith. The prosecution argues that the Devil’s presence on Earth has had a disastrous effect on mankind, whereas the defense counters that the Devil is – and always has been – man’s greatest scapegoat. The Devil demands that he be found innocent and be released to return to Heaven.
Tropes used in The History of the Devil include:
- Affably Evil
- Artificial Human: Lucifer's "son"
- Ascended Demon: Lucifer's goal
- Bad Boss: Lucifer
- The Bad Guy Wins: Well yes, but... see Pyrrhic Villainy.
- Cry for the Devil
- Dead Person Conversation: How each of the "witnesses" testify. They did live centuries apart.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even the devil is not an Omnicidal Maniac.
- Fallen Angel: One of the flashbacks covers the fall.
- Flash Back
- Go Mad From the Revelation: The heaven-bound messengers, upon discovering that heaven is empty.
- Have You Seen My God?
- High Heel Face Turn: Inverted with Jane
- Humans Are Bastards
- Literal Ass Kissing: Lucifer asks several characters to do this for him, but politely.
- Monster Sob Story
- Offing the Offspring
- Out-Gambitted: Lucifer, once by Jesus and again at the end by the prosecution.
- Out with a Bang: Pia Shim
- Pyrrhic Villainy: Lucifer wins the trial and goes back to heaven, on the caveat that he can never return to Earth. It turns out that heaven has been abandoned.
- Their First Time
- Undying Loyalty: Lucifer's minion
- Villainy Discretion Shot: Well, you can't fit in everything the devil has done into a single play.
- Villain Protagonist
- Witch Hunt: A literal one in a flashback.
- You Have Failed Me