Posts tagged devil

and it was awesome. It was the Fellowship for the Performing Arts production. (Spoiler Alert)

What I liked:

Max McLean was perfectly sinister (in an almost Alan Rickmanesque manner) without being overly serious.

The expansion of the character of Screwtape’s secretary, Toadpipe (Tamala Bakkensen) was a stroke of genius. It provided much needed relief from Screwtape’s ramblings, without straying from Lewis’s writing at all. Bakkensen’s motion capture experience really showed as the impish Toadpipe crept around the stage. My only caveat: her super bright smile almost broke the facade. Toadpipe needed some sharpened or blackened teeth, I think.

The set was awesome. It was a simple raked stage, with an armchair, a small writing table/pulpit, and a ladder leading up into nothingness. The back wall consisted of spooky stacks of bones. It perfectly conveyed the sense of being in a comfortable little study in Screwtape’s little house in the aristocratic side of Hades.

What I didn’t like so much:

Really just one thing: The original context of Lewis’s depiction of Screwtape’s work is WWII era London. In an effort to update it a bit, the FPA folks changed references to the Blitz to vague mentions of “terror attacks”. It is in one of these attacks that Screwtape’s Patient dies. Frankly, I think that the original context is much more powerful. “The Screwtape Letters” was written in the midst of the Blitz, and the backdrop of global war adds to the universality of Lewis’s message. I don’t think it needed to be updated at all. 

Over all, it was a really impressive production. I don’t think it’s in my area much longer, but for any of you tumblrites who live elsewhere, if you hear about it coming to your part of the country, I highly recommend that you consider seeing it.