Know thy enemy: C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters" onstage

Source: The Santa Fe New MexicanAug.迷你倉出租 02--In C.S. Lewis' 1942 novel The Screwtape Letters, there is a universe turned upside down. The story takes place deep in hell, where God is referred to as the Enemy. Screwtape, a seasoned devil, uses correspondence to instruct his nephew Wormwood, a newly minted demon sent to Earth to corrupt a particular soul called the Patient for Satan, aka Our Father Below. The ultimate goal is to secure the soul for consumption -- hell depends on regular sustenance.Presented entirely in Screwtape's biting voice, The Screwtape Letters is clever and whimsical: demons have names like Slubgob, Glubose, Toadpipe, and Triptweeze, and Screwtape himself is delightfully evil. A typical letter begins: "My dear Wormwood, I sometimes wonder what Slubgob teaches you at the Training College. Through your incompetence and that disastrous episode of repentance and renewal, the Enemy is turning your Patient's attention away from self to Him, and to his neighbors."In 2006, a 90-minute stage adaptation of The Screwtape Letters, written by Jeffrey Fiske and Max McLean, had its premiere at New York's Theatre 315. From there, it was performed in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and again in New York, in addition to touring around the country. On Friday, Aug. 2, the production comes to Santa Fe for two performances at the Lensic Performing Arts Center. Brent Harris portrays Screwtape (Harris is an accomplished villain, having played Iago in Othello, Lucifer in Doctor Faustus, and Scar in The Lion King) and is the sole speaking character in what's essentially a spirited monologue. The demon Toadpipe is the only other character, and it is a mute, gestural role."The first Lewis book I read when I was in my 20s was his autobiography. I didn't understand a word of it," said McLean, who directs the Santa Fe production. "The second book I read was The Screwtape Letters, and I immediately thought, I know this guy, this Screwtape."Lewis was born in Ireland in 1898. He was an author and an academic and spent much of his life teaching at Cambridge and Oxford, where he was part of a cohort that included J.R.R. Tolkien. Brought up as a Christian, Lewis became an atheist as a teenager before committing to the Church of England in his early 30s. Virtually all of his work is built around Christian morality and theology. Lewis is best known for his seven-book series The Chronicles of Narnia, about a magical world (with staunchly Christian underpinnings) to which four siblings travel over the course of their childhood and adolescence.The world of The Screwtape Letters is no less fantastical than Narnia, but it's also imbued with the familiarity and mundane reality of the everyday, which is described through Screwtape's grim depictions of life on Earth. In his letters, Screwtape highlights ordinary moments as gleaming opportunities to capture the wayward Patient: when he's hungry and distracted by the prospect of lunch, by encouraging temptation for minor sins (sex and cards), or especially during what Screwtape calls "undulation," the natural "emotional troughs and peaks" which, even though they're part of life, humans tend to resent."In many ways the Patient's journey echoes Lewis'," McLean said. "He said that he was as indifferent morally as any human could have been. Not amoral, just indifferent. He wasn't motivated by moral questions and thought that it's not our office to worry about stuff like that." Toward the middle of the play, Screwtape encourages Wormwood to foster a sense of apathy in his Patient, explaining that this is 儲存倉ften much more effective (and easier) that rousing him to commit evil acts. Screwtape advocates "making the Patient do nothing at all for long periods, staying up all night staring at a cold fire," McLean said, referencing a scene in the play. "Satan's road to hell is the long one. His wheelhouse is the small indifferent choices that we make."Of course, Lewis did not take the path to hell that he describes. "He went from atheism to dabbling in paganism and spent a little time in the occult, using things like pentagrams and Ouija boards under the influence of William Butler Yeats," McLean said. "That had the benefit of scaring the hell out of him. When he got back to Oxford, he decided that he was taking no more detours into the back alleyways but would walk in the middle of the road with the lights on. That was his metaphor for acting sensibly and doing the right thing."Subversive though it appears, The Screwtape Letters ultimately bows to the power and absolution of God. Screwtape is clearly afraid of his Enemy, and throughout his monologue, he inserts little reminders about who's really in charge. He refers to the Church as "spread throughout time and space and rooted in eternity. That, I confess, is a spectacle that makes our boldest tempters uneasy." Later, he warns Wormwood, "We must never allow the Patient to trust the real, invisible Presence, there with him in the room." And Screwtape acknowledges of the Enemy, "He really loves the hairless bipeds He has created."These moments serve to undermine Screwtape's power. He may be evil, but Lewis presumes that we are not. Screwtape understands that humans begin as basically good; a corrupting influence is necessary to bring them to Our Father Below. Because Screwtape declares that God's love for humans is real, he affirms the moral structure of the Christian universe. Not even a demon can unseat or alter the rules.And because the world of Screwtape is so sharply drawn, Lewis occasionally makes facile distinctions. A humble grocer who attends church with the Patient is just and good; the urbane intellectuals he associates with early on are probably going to hell. There's a slightly uncomfortable quality when Lewis references vaguely defined sexuality: Screwtape tells Wormwood that "sexual temptations" are separate from love and are a sure-fire way to ensnare the Patient. The woman the Patient falls in love with is righteous and pure, thereby spoiling Wormwood's plans. This moralizing would be terribly dull if Screwtape himself weren't so much fun. Lewis is wise in getting us to like him. As with Lolita's Humbert Humbert, Screwtape's language is seductive. His tone is deadpan; he makes good jokes, and invites us to relish his wickedness. If Lewis is an apologist, Screwtape is not. He does not explain or justify his demon nature; it's just who he is."I think people who have a theistic mind-set and are interested in supernatural conversations will enjoy the play," McLean said. "Lewis creates this anthropomorphic representation of hell because he wants to capture people's imaginations, but the question Screwtape really asks is, Are we free?"details--The Screwtape Letters, presented by Fellowship for the Performing Arts--8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 2; 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 3--Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St.--$35-$55 (discounts available); 988-1234, .ticketssantafe.orgCopyright: ___ (c)2013 The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.) Visit The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, N.M.) at .santafenewmexican.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉沙田