The Devil's Disciple

In the dead of a 1777 New Hampshire winter, the kitchen of a modest farm becomes a stage for stubborn virtue and hidden vice. Mrs. Dudgeon, a rigidly pious matriarch, enforces a strict moral code while the world outside roars with the fever of revolution. The play opens with her watching the dark hours, her stern reputation masking a private licentiousness that fuels the tension in the small parish.

A teenage girl, ragged and half‑asleep on a worn horsehair sofa, represents the restless spirit of a generation caught between duty and desire. When a furtive knock at the door interrupts the night, Mrs. Dudgeon’s fierce reprimand sets off a clash of ideals that mirrors the broader conflict between British authority and budding American liberty. Shaw’s early act mixes biting satire with earnest questioning, promising a drama where personal conviction meets the chaotic charge of history.