Vancouver Fringe Festival review: The Devil and Billy Markham is storytelling at its finest

Billy Markham’s a badass songwriter who gambles his soul with the devil in this six-part ballad written by the late, great American poet and children’s author Shel Silverstein in the late 1970s. Director Alexandra West and performer Tom McGee create a minimalist interpretation—McGee’s only props are a mop and a flashlight—that highlights Silverstein’s delightful rhythms and McGee’s virtuosic delivery. The tale, in which Billy Markham’s encounters with the devil send him to hell, heaven, and a few places in between, is consistently entertaining and sometimes profane. Storytelling at its best.

At Origins Organic Coffee on September 13 (7:15 p.m.), September 15 (9 p.m.), 16 (8:30 p.m.), 17 (1:30 and 5 p.m.), and 18 (8:45 p.m.).