The stage adaptation of The Screwtape Letters will be performed in Columbia at the Koger Center for the Arts on March 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Based on the classic work by C. S. Lewis, the production explores spiritual warfare from a demon’s point of view. The show has played to sold-out audiences in major cities across the United States and London, reaching more than 600,000 viewers.
Along with The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters remains one of Lewis’ most influential works. First published in 1942, the book brought worldwide recognition to the Oxford scholar and even earned a cover feature in Time magazine.
The play presents a morally inverted world set in a stylish office in hell, where God is referred to as “the Enemy” and the devil as “Our Father Below.” The story follows Screwtape — “His Abysmal Sublimity” — and his servant demon Toadpipe as they mentor an apprentice demon named Wormwood in the art of tempting an unsuspecting human on Earth.
Directed by Max McLean, the production stars Brent Harris as Screwtape.
Lewis said the idea for the book came to him after listening to Adolf Hitler’s Reichstag speech on July 19, 1940, which was simultaneously translated on BBC radio. The experience influenced his exploration of persuasion, temptation and human weakness.
Lewis dedicated the book to his friend J. R. R. Tolkien, who had cautioned him about the spiritual toll of focusing too deeply on evil.
For more information, visit ScrewtapeOnStage.com.
Photo by ScrewtapeOnStage.com