I was really glad to be able to make a return trip to hell this past weekend, thanks to a one-day visit by the theatrical production of The Screwtape Letters.
I’ve now seen this production in two different theaters in two different cities and with two different lead actors. Steven Hauck, Max McLean’s understudy, took the stage the first time I experienced C.S. Lewis’s peek into the philosophy and practice of successful mortal temptation.
I think Screwtape plays better in a venue much smaller than the Memorial Auditorium, but Max McLean’s Screwtape (as did Hauck’s) really, really enjoys his job, as any good senior Tempter should, and literally makes no bones about adding failed junior devils to the infernal feasting below.
C.S. Lewis’s works seem to be growing in popular interest, partly no doubt due to productions like these that make the texts extremely accessible ?and entertaining. According to the producers at Fellowship for the Performing Arts, The Great Divorce is slated to be its next C.S. Lewis production. Looking forward to that as well.
