Popular culture likes to paint demons as a menacing, bright red creature with horns, but fiction understands that the masters of Hell would probably have to be quite educated and charming in order to properly do their job of luring people into damnation. In fact, it seems like a demon would probably make excellent company for an evening, as long as you were good and untangling truths from lies and kept one eye on your soul the whole time.
One of fiction’s most famous demons finally makes his way from the novel to the stage in “The Screwtape Letters,” coming to Salt Lake’s Kingsbury Hall tomorrow (Jan. 28) for two performances as part of the show’s national tour (tickets are available online). The play, based on the well-known novel by C.S. Lewis, takes audiences to an office in Hell as it follows the scheming of the Devil’s chief psychiatrist, Screwtape, as he guides an unsuspecting human to damnation.
“Lewis surely intended a weirdly campy element to the proceedings, and a weirdly campy element is most assuredly delivered. But so is a very smart, crystal clear and honestly intended reading of Lewis’ richly rewarding prose,” reads the Chicago Tribune’s review of the show, which originated there in 2008. “The exuberant theatricality leaves you wiping your brow at the end.”
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