The devil went down to Georgia looking for a soul to steal, according to the old Charlie Daniels song.
However, the prince of darkness is hoping to get his hands on two souls when he goes to New Hampshire in “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” The two-act play will be performed by the Box in the Wood Theatre Guild for two weeks beginning Thursday.
The play surrounds the Faustian deal that the devil makes with a young farmer named Jabez Stone, played by Ethan Fregien. In return for seven years of prosperity, Jabez must surrender his soul after that period and return to hell with the devil, known as Mr. Scratch and played by Geoff Madsen.
However, Jabez isn’t ready to give up his soul once the seven-year period comes to an end, and in order to wriggle out of his commitment to eternal damnation, he turns to famed attorney Daniel Webster, played by Ralph Beversdorf, for help. The devil agrees to let the case go to a New England courtroom trial, but only if Daniel agrees to surrender his soul if he fails to prove Jabez’s case.
Mary Madsen, president of the guild and its parent organization, the Shawano County Arts Council, is directing the show, with her husband, Tom, as assistant director. Mary Madsen said she agreed to direct the show after her husband suggested it.
“He absolutely loves the play and said, ‘We should do this play,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know anything about this play.’” Madsen said. “The more I read it and the more we talked about it, I loved it.”
Tom Madsen was in the play decades ago when he was in eighth grade, playing a member of the crowd. Besides being the assistant director, he has stepped in as Benedict Arnold when another cast member had to drop out.
“I want folks to come away with the feeling that there is still good in the world and that, even though we face tough situations, there’s always a way of getting out of it,” Tom Madsen said. “There’s always someone to help.”
This is Geoff Madsen’s second turn as the devil after playing him in another play, “Rest Assured,” in 2014. Tom Madsen, Geoff’s father, said he recommended that his son cultivate Mr. Scratch’s character more like the one portrayed in the 1941 film and played by Walter Huston.
“He’s sneaky. He’s conniving. He’s a shyster, and yet you kind of like him because he loves what he’s doing,” Tom Madsen said. “He doesn’t take anything seriously.”
The Madsens found the plow that will be just shy of center stage by happenstance, driving near Gresham and seeing it in a front yard.
“We pulled up and asked if we could borrow it, and he said, ‘Oh yeah, sure!’” Mary Madsen said. “It was a decoration in a garden.”
The director noted that, while the traditional play is more serious, Box in the Wood is making it a little more lighthearted, turning a drama into a “dramedy.”
“It’s not like a ‘yuck, yuck, yuck,’ but there are some really cute, funny parts,” she said. “The way Geoff and Ralph interact is phenomenal.”
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