This acclaimed and faithful stage adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ satiric masterpiece follows Screwtape, a senior tempter in Hell, as he schemes to capture the soul of an unsuspecting human on earth; and reveals spiritual warfare in vivid, humorous and powerful ways.
The show runs 90 minutes and is scheduled at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Wagner Noël Performing Arts Center. The show is recommended for ages 13 and up and children under 4 are not admitted.
The show has glowing reviews including the Chicago Sun-Times, which called it “smart, sizzling entertainment” and Christianity Today called it “a profound experience.”
The tale was first published in 1942 and is a Christian apologetic novel by C. S. Lewis and dedicated to J. R. R. Tolkien. It is written in a satirical, epistolary style and while it is fictional in format, the plot and characters are used to address Christian theological issues, primarily those to do with temptation and resistance to it.
The story, the website details, takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, a Junior Tempter. The uncle’s mentorship pertains to the nephew’s responsibility in securing the damnation of a British man known only as “the Patient.”
In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis provides a series of lessons in the importance of taking a deliberate role in Christian faith by portraying a typical human life, with all its temptations and failings, seen from devils’ viewpoints.
In the 31 letters which constitute the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining God’s words and of promoting abandonment of God in “the Patient,” interspersed with observations on human nature and on the Bible. In Screwtape’s advice, selfish gain and power are seen as the only good, and neither demon can comprehend God’s love for man or acknowledge human virtue, the website detailed.
Versions of the letters were originally published weekly in the Anglican periodical The Guardian, between May and November 1941.
