'The Screwtape Letters' at Lantern Theater

Originally a novella, The Screwtape Letters (1942) was Lewis’s satirical speculation about how Hell might operate — Lewis was probably the first to imagine the infernal regions operating much like a soul-numbing bureaucracy. In addition, he spelled out the basics of Christian philosophy and morality, as well as quantifying what constitutes a virtuous Christian life. Anyone who has listened to Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell will get the gist of it immediately.

The story, such as it is, involves an infernal “tempter” getting periodic performance review letters from his bureaucratic superior, Screwtape, who analyzes the tempter’s efforts to subvert a particular man away from Christian virtue and into Hell’s grasp. Included in these letters is a reasonably detailed description of the values and morality of both sides of the spiritual battle for humankind’s soul.

Writer/actor Anthony Lawton took on the task of adapting the novella for the stage. He seems to have successfully captured the essence of Lewis’s screed. I say “seems” because I’ve never subjected myself to any of Lewis’s original prose (I avoid anything resembling Christian apologetics at all costs). But it feels like a Lewis sermon, based on what I have read about his work: witty and erudite, but with a conservative value system that makes me want to hurl.

But how I feel (as a skeptical secular humanist) about the conservative Christian values being proselytized (or satirized, depending on your point of view) is irrelevant; the question is how well did the The Screwtape Letters succeed as a piece of theater? The results were mixed. The script, despite the wit and erudition, proved to be predictable and, at almost two hours without an intermission, overlong and tedious.

In addition to being the script’s adapter, Anthony Lawton played the infernal tempter Screwtape in a bravura performance of what is very nearly a one-man show. As his sidekick, Toadpipe, in a virtually wordless role, Sarah Gliko also impressed. Interspersed throughout the play were short episodes that were apparently supposed to visually illustrate through interpretive dance and other chorgeographed efforts whatever point was being made in the text. This device was only intermittently effective despite the best, and sometimes impressive, efforts of Lawton and Gliko.

A lack of subtlety

There was no director credited for the show, so I have to assume that Lawton made most of the crucial directorial decisions, some of which were a bit obvious. For example, the play opens with Screwtape putting up a picture in his office, presumably of someone he admires — Sarah Palin. That’s cute, but obvious; it would have made a sharper satirical point to use Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell or even Mother Teresa.

Another stereotype that personally bothered me was the trope of leather/S&M/cross-dressing as the way demons have sex. I suppose an argument can be made for Lawton attempting to make a satirical point, but we know Lewis was a fervent, sincere believer. It’s been my personal experience that leatherfolk are among the nicest, most charitable subculture extant, so to use them as visual shorthand for the evils of promiscuity is really unfair. (But then, the discussion of sexuality as a whole was eye-rollingly antiquated.)

There was one segment, though, involving a fire-eating ritual (a metaphor for demons consuming the light of human souls, I gathered), that was particularly noteworthy. It’s not just that Lawton and Gliko both proved so adept at it that was so impressive, but that the Lantern got their insurance carrier to give them permission for it at all.

My conclusion concerning The Screwtape Letters is that one’s response to this adaptation very much depends on one's patience with being told that Susan Hayward exemplifies all that is evil in women. However, the stagecraft and actors deserve high praise for some of the best work seen on a Philadelphia stage this season.