C.S. Lewis’ book “The Screwtape Letters” was first published in 1942. Since then it has captured the hearts and minds of many who appreciate the author’s wry humor and cleverly inverted arguments regarding faith and morality.
“The Screwtape Letters,” currently being presented at the Lansburgh Theatre, is adapted for the stage by Jeffrey Fiske and Max McLean. It is set in hell, in the office of a senior demon, His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape. There Screwtape dictates letter after letter to his nephew, Wormwood, a junior tempter on Earth, giving him advice as to how he should turn an ordinary mortal into a sinner.
The man who takes on the 90-minute-long, virtually nonstop role of Screwtape in this production is Max McLean. From the first moment of the play, when he addresses young graduates of the Tempters’ Training College for Young Devils, McLean creates a cunning, passionate persona, his deep voice silkily spilling out perverse wit and wisdom.
McLean is joined onstage by Karen Eleanor Wight, who plays Toadpipe, Screwtape’s personal secretary. Wrapped head to toe in gray with tiny gray batwings, Toadpipe doesn’t speak; he just grunts or illustrates Screwtape’s musings. Wight is delightful in the role, scampering around to do Screwtape’s bidding.
The ingenious set, by Cameron Anderson, consists of a raked triangle containing a wavy ladder leading up to Earth, a magic mailbox with instant delivery, and Screwtape’s armchair. Bart Fasbender’s sound design creates a variety of moods, using everything from virtually inaudible background sound to glorious, overwhelming music. The lighting design, by Tyler Micoleau, plays up the show’s basic palette, sometimes revealing the impenetrable concrete back wall in flat, gray light, sometimes flooding it with fiery crimson.
Director Jeffrey Fiske cleverly uses the small playing space to focus attention on Lewis’ delightful Demon, whose philosophy about life leads to intriguing reflection on war, marriage, pride, cynicism, love,
gluttony — even the “gluttony of delicacy.” McLean and Fiske’s version of “The Screwtape Letters” is an inspired comedic view of man’s relation to his soul and to major issuesin the modern world.
