The Devil Is a Travelling Man: Two Plays by W.O. Mitchell

Two of W.O. Mitchell's poems are collected here. The Black Bonspiel of Wullie MacCrimmon is a whimsical take on the Faust legend with a distinctly Canadian flavour. Filled with wry humour and set against the backdrop of a timeless small-town dynamic, the story of Wullie MacCrimmon's curling duel with the Devil combines the edginess of Marlowe's classic tale with the down-to-earth wry Canadian humour of "Corner Gas." The Devil's Instrument depicts a Hutterite teenager struggling with conformity in a puritan society. Mitchell's devil in this play is a figure of sympathy, but lines such as "Happy? I am free!" invite the ambiguity of whether it is better to indulge in what seems natural, or strive for the divine.