I also think there’s a lot more broad, laugh-out-loud comedy in Lewis’s book than this production tapped. I’ve always pictured Screwtape as a minor functionary much like Ricky Gervais in the BBC's The Office – a preening, oblivious buffoon. In today’s white-collar world, that sort of slimy toad in a position of power is ultimately much scarier than a Prince of Darkness with cartoon horns and cloven hoofs.
Max McLean, however, chooses to play Screwtape along traditional lines: with slicked-back longish hair, salt-and-pepper goatee, and red-and-gold brocaded smoking jacket, he spews his bile in the sort of thee-ah-tah diction Jon Lovett lampooned with his Saturday Night Live character The Thespian. I kept missing crucial words, which is a real problem, considering that Screwtape has all the lines.
There are several moments in the play, though, when Lewis's satire of a godless modern society seems as if it were written yesterday: when Screwtape sneeringly describes the jaded, materialistic friends who are helping to corrupt his human prey, or talks about the specter of war (World War II then, Iraq now) unnerving the humans' heart. Best of all is a passage about modern ideals of feminine beauty – unnatural boyish figures, a chronic horror of looking old – that seems ripped straight from today’s papers; I was astonished to find that it’s all right there in the 1941 Screwtape. The audience's eager response to those sequences made me conscious that they hadn’t been completely engaged all along.
Still, McLean’s florid interpretation gradually won me over, as this upper-middle-management devil becomes more and more ravenous for souls he sees slipping out of his grasp. His Screwtape devolves into a haunted, pathetic figure by the final scenes; the last blackout left the audience too stunned, for a moment, to applaud.
It would be a shame if The Screwtape Letters doesn’t draw enough non-practicing Christians to fill its seats. After all, C. S. Lewis wrote these newspaper pieces to reinvigorate a system of belief that was on shaky ground even in 1941. His brand of Christianity is anything but evangelical – it's a sort of thinking man’s faith that’s been run underground of late. It’s high time it got a chance to rear its head again.
Article comments
1 - Dan Anton
Sounds like a great play/story and also a good way to get people thinking again about their faith..and what they truly believe. I live in NJ and haven't been to a play in about a year; nothing beats theatre
2 - margaret
I saw it in SF Bay area this month... I know the book well, but found it extremely difficult to understand much of Screwtape's dialog--lots of bombast and staccato delivery, very little variety in speech inflections, a real problem with stepping on his own lines rather than letting Lewis's words penetrate the ear and mind.
My twenty-something companions couldn't understand it either.
Adding to the problem was that the actor was miked and the mike contributed muffling.
But the set and Toadpipe were wonderful.
3 - Holly A Hughes
Why do they insist on miking actors even in small theaters?
True, he did seem to feel the need to layer on blustery vocal emphasis, when Lewis's words are damning enough. But I didn't find it hard to understand his dialog. Bad acoustics can ruin a wordy play like this.
4 - Sarah Ferrante
I saw McClean's performance (in late 2008, I believe) in D.C. Yes, the words came a bit fast at first, but I was able within two or three minutes to follow along easily. McClean is over-dramatic, to be sure, but I cannot see Screwtape as anything else on stage. Letting Lewis' words sink in gradually is great for written pieces, but the stage is a whole other animal.
As for "blustury emphasis," any less would have allowed the play to fall dead on the stage. Modern audiences are not patient enough for words; accustomed to watching movies rather than reading books, the modern theater-goers NEED such emphasis to pick up on certain things. Their minds are often too dull to catch humor in the words, so they need it in the intonations.
As for the quick pace of the play, anything over 90 minutes of monologue would not sell. Period. McClean is racing to the finish the entire time so he can get his message across before you tune out.
I know full well I should be a critical audience member, and I rarely give any play a rave review.
"Screwtape Letters" is my one noteable exception.
5 - Holly A Hughes
It's great to see that this play has been steadily working its way around the country. I'd be curious to see it in different cities and see how audiences respond. I agree, Sarah, that the actor needs to "sell" the words with intonations and theatricality; I just had a different conception of Screwtape's personality, that's all. But wow, do you really think audiences are "too dull to catch humor in the words"? I was impressed by how well my New York audience followed Lewis' complex arguments; they didn't need it dumbed down. And I'd assume this is true everywhere. Maybe it's a self-selecting audience, granted...