REVIEW: The Screwtape Letters, Park Theatre ✭✭✭

Max McLean in The Screwtape Letters The Screwtape Letters

Park Theatre

9 December 2017

3 Stars

Book Tickets

Although the roots of modern theatre lie partly in medieval mystery plays and morality dramas such as Everyman, it is rare today that we see plays with strong Christian themes. The New York City-based Fellowship for Performing Arts (FPA) has a mission to change that, creating engaging theatre "from a Christian worldview". It has now brought its show, The Screwtape Letters, to the UK after success in New York and across the US.

Adapted by FPA's founder and artistic director Max McLean with Jeffrey Fiske, it is based on a 1941 satirical work by British writer CS Lewis, today best known for his Christian-inspired children's books, The Chronicles of Narnia. Formed of 31 letters, the novel features His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape, a senior devil in Hell, advising his novice demon nephew Wormwood on how to tempt an unwitting man, "the Patient", on Earth to damnation.

Karen Eleanor Wight and Max McLean in The Screwtape Letters

In his adaptation, McLean himself is perfect in the title role, creating a mercurial Screwtape who switches from charm to malevolent ferocity as he reads out his letters. He is joined on stage by his secretary, Toadpipe, a demon who slinks around the stage, responding with animal-like sounds to the letters and occasionally standing wordlessly in for other characters. The creature is played with sinuous conviction by Karen Eleanor Wight who originated the part in New York.

The striking set by Cameron Anderson is Screwtape's office in the bowels of hell, tastefully furnished with a large leather armchair, a mail chute and a floor-to-ceiling wall built from the skulls and bones of the damned.

Max McLean in The Screwtape Letters

The joy of the play and the original text comes from the inverted morality of Screwtape's world, where good is bad and sinning is applauded. God is "The Enemy" and Satan is "Our Father Below". The idea of praying makes Toadpipe vomit while self-interest, greed and pride are to be encouraged.

Through this upside-down world, CS Lewis presents a vision of what makes a good Christian and what can lead someone to damnation. "It does not matter how small a sin provided that the cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the light," Screwtape points out. "Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick."

For non-Christians and indeed some Christians, some of Lewis's views may feel out-dated or sanctimonious and, despite McLean's excellent performance and distillation of the 31 letters, the text's Christian lessons shine through despite being diffused through the words of a devil. Although this show probably fits best with a Christian audience, its often funny topsy-turvy values and McLean's bravura performance broaden its appeal.

Running to January 7, 2017

BOOK TICKETS FOR THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS AT PARK THEATRE