The Creation of the World and Other Business is a play byArthur Miller first performed in 1972.
The play is aparable that explores the theme of good-versus-evil by way of a comedic retelling of events in theBook of Genesis in the Bible. The first act is set in theGarden of Eden, where God createsEve forAdam. God wants the couple to procreate, but doesn't know how to entice them into starting the process. Onto the scene comesLucifer, who believes the existence of evil will make sex exciting, and he tempts the couple to eat the forbidden apple. God punishes Lucifer by tossing him intohell and punishes the couple by expelling them from paradise. In the second act, Eve gives birth toCain. In the third act, Cain kills his brother Abel and is sent out as a wanderer.[1][2]
Miller's first work sinceThe Price five years earlier,Creation stumbled along during rehearsals. Original directorHarold Clurman and most of the cast, includingBarbara Harris,Susan Batson andHal Holbrook, were replaced, and theplaywright rewrote most of the material.[citation needed] After 21 previews, theBroadway production, directed byGerald Freedman, opened on November 30, 1972, at theShubert Theatre, where it ran for 20 performances.[3] The cast includedStephen Elliott as God,Bob Dishy as Adam,Zoe Caldwell as Eve,George Grizzard as Lucifer,Barry Primus as Cain, andMark Lamos as Abel.[2][3]
In 1973, Tangent Theatre, an amateur theatre company fromWalsall, won the rights to perform the play at theEdinburgh Festival Fringe.[citation needed] It was a critical success and Don Nunes, the director accepted the award for best production that year from Esther Rantzen. Tangent Theatre grew out of the West Midlands College of Education Theatre Society and performed all over Britain and Europe between 1969 and 1974.[citation needed]
Miller reworked the play into a musical,Up From Paradise, which opened in 1974 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.[4]
In 2004,Citizens of the Universe's production of Creation of the World and Other Business was banned from playing atGreenville Technical College.[5]
In 2014, the Theater Department atOrange Coast College put on arock and rolljukebox musical version of the play.[6]