WASHINGTON (Map, News) - 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 issues in the modern world.

Comments from Examiner Readers

9:07 AM MST on Fri., Apr. 25, 2008 re: "�Cymbaline� crashes"

Former Examiner Reader said:
My wife and I saw Cymbeline this past weekend and really enjoyed it.

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10:02 PM MST on Thu., Apr. 24, 2008 re: "�Cymbaline� crashes"

theatergoer in DC said:
Wow. I saw Cymbeline last week and wouldn't have recognized it from this review. It's always a pity when theater reviewers haven't the attention span to follow, say, theater. You know Cymbeline is Shakespeare from the start of the first act -- who else so perfectly weaves exiled lovers, mistaken identities, and of course, murder and poison -- and far from another staid production enjoyed only by closed-minded fuddy-duddies, I thought the dog and pony production took what admittedly isn't Shakespeare's best work and jazzed it up -- it was a funny and high-energy performance when I was there, and instead of spacing out at a stiff production with overdramatized lines, I was - forbid! - engaged with the storyline and the characters throughout. I hope this review doesn't keep anyone away -- it's definitely not a traditional staging of a Shakespeare play, but given the production I saw, I think that was a selling point.

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1:54 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 23, 2008 re: "�Cymbaline� crashes"

Examiner Reader said:
Yeah, it's hard to take seriously a critic who can't even be bothered to look at his program to confirm the spelling of the title of the play. And Shakespeare, no less! No reader in their right mind should voluntarily subject themselves to such shoddy "journalism."

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1:46 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 23, 2008 re: "�Cymbaline� crashes"

Examiner Reader said:
Wow...he mispelled it 4 times...if he can't spell, how can he be taken seriously?

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1:37 PM MST on Wed., Apr. 23, 2008 re: "�Cymbaline� crashes"

Examiner Reader said:
Wow...I haven't seen this show yet, but have serious doubts about the review when the critic cannot spell the name of the play correctly. Hey! Doug Krentzlin! The play is called Cymbeline! With an E in the middle! Let as many people post on this as possible!

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6:02 AM MST on Wed., Apr. 23, 2008 re: "�Cymbaline� crashes"

Examiner Reader said:
The play is actually spelled...Cymbeline...there is no A (assuming we're talking about the one Shakespeare wrote)

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