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Through January 13, Lantern Theater Company, 10th and Ludlow streets, 215-829-0395 lanterntheater.org.
How do you make a religious treatise fun? Set it in Hell, and teach indirectly through the ironic voice of a middle-management devil instructing a minion how to steer a man away from "The Enemy." The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis (of renewed Chronicles of Narnia fame), seems an unlikely work for stage adaptation, but actor-writer Tony Lawton's energetic version succeeds.
Lawton, who made an engaging monologue out of Lewis's The Great Divorce last year, enlivens Screwtape's letters to his novice Wormwood with interludes featuring Genevieve Perrier as Toadpipe, Screwtape's icy-cold Bond Girl assistant. Each time she delivers a report from Wormwood, she and Screwtape engage in some sort of combat: acrobatic physical battles, a fire-eating contest, a ferociously fun tap duel, and even whip-cracking sexual games. These are all surprising, spectacular encounters, the thrill heightened by the small space (the squeamish should avoid the first row).
All this action spices the meat of the matter, which is an often clever and insightful exploration of the idea of Love as humanity's divine trait. Screwtape instructs Wormwood to battle against it with all sorts of temptations - the biggest of which, sounding very modern in its identification of the evils of television and video games, is idleness. The obstacle to the empty, tedious life Wormwood shapes for his victim is genuine pleasure - so, don't fear, this isn't another "just say no" lecture.
Screwtape confesses, however, to not understanding Love; it must be, he insists, merely The Enemy's ploy. Lawton shows this cocky devil beginning to glimpse greater ideas, making what in lesser hands would be merely recitation into powerful realization.
Missing The Screwtape Letters out of distaste for pumped-up election-year piety would be a mistake; though Lawton scores an easy chuckle when Screwtape hangs a sneering Dick Cheney portrait, the play skewers today's preening politicians regardless of party with venomous glee. (Some ironic commentary may be unintentional as Lewis couldn't have foreseen our current administration when he had Screwtape complain of "a failure of our intelligence department.")
Go for the showy pyrotechnics like Perrier's increasingly slinky outfits, the actors' daring choreography, even the witty PowerPoint presentation that illustrates Screwtape's letters . . . and stay for the fascinating rumination on contemporary morals through Lawton's all-too-human devil.
I saw it Friday (Jan 11) with my wife. It was terrific. Agree that the Cheney pic was a cheap laugh. Anthony Lawton is a wonderful actor, Genevieve Perrier is hot - and they are terrific in their physical work. CS Lewis is the star here - one of those works where there's a hard hitting, thought-provoking quote every few minutes that keeps you thinking for days afterwards.
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