A packed audience at Salt Lake City’s Capitol Theatre erupted in laughter Saturday evening as Screwtape, a character conceived by C.S. Lewis in his 1942 novel “The Screwtape Letters,” struggles to mentor his nephew in the demon art of temptation.
As the theater repeatedly filled with laughs, playwright Max McLean proved a claim he had made during an interview with the Deseret News a few days earlier — Lewis, a Christian writer best known for his “Chronicles of Narnia” series, was “a very funny writer,” and his work remains overwhelmingly relevant to modern audiences.
But McLean, who adapted “The Screwtape Letters” into the stage play, won’t readily take credit for the production’s impact on audiences. He gives that to Lewis.
“(Lewis’) words are really compelling, and that’s what makes the story,” McLean said. “Lewis had an oscillation of ideas, particularly as it related to spiritual warfare, that are ... very compelling to audiences and very convicting to audiences.”
He added, “So that is what has made the play such a success.”
“The Screwtape Letters” is a satirical, epistolary novel told through a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his inexperienced nephew, Wormwood.
In his letters, Screwtape advises Wormwood on methods of temptation and corruption used to sneakily drag a human “patient” away from God and into Hell.
The plot, while it touches on several dark themes, is “meant to have a kind of satirical bite,” McLean said.
“The play has a playfulness to it,” he added. “There’s a lot of humor in the play that gives it a light touch. And I think the light touch is important.”
Adapting ‘Screwtape’ for the stage
Roughly two decades ago, McLean was told he had the acting skills to play a “really good” Screwtape.
“I didn’t know if that was a compliment or not,” McLean joked. The novel had not previously been adapted into a stage play, but that comment “got the ball rolling.”
He had plenty of experience and resources to make the adaptation happen. But the idea hinged on getting the rights to the novel from the C.S. Lewis estate.
McLean studied acting during college, followed by drama school in London. He started producing his own work during the 1980s and a decade later, in 1992, McLean launched his own nonprofit production company in New York City, the Fellowship for Performing Arts.
When he was finally granted the rights to “The Screwtape Letters,” McLean co-adapted the script with Jeffrey Fiske, followed by a developmental run of the play in New York. “It wasn’t very good,” he recalled, “but it gave us a path to something that was quite theatrical.”
Working as director and filling the role of Screwtape, McLean led a second, nine-month developmental run of the show in New York City in 2010. Then in 2015, the play had a six-week, sold-out run in London.
Since then, “The Screwtape Letters” has toured regularly, appearing before sold-out audiences in major cities across the U.S., McLean said.
Squeezing the 224-page novel into an 80-minute production was no small feat, but McLean and Fiske’s script touches on 24 of the 31 letters from the text — enough to highlight the bulk of the text and make for a “pretty faithful” adaptation, McLean said.
As McLean went through the pages of “The Screwtape Letters” and thoughtfully considered how to successfully adapt the novel into a stage production, the time he spent with each letter reemphasized a truth McLean had already come to know, about “the reality of the devil.”
“A strong Christian idea is that we must not be ignorant of his devices, meaning Satan’s devices. He masquerades as an angel of light, and therefore we have to put on the armor of God,” McLean said. “We have to guard our hearts.”
He added that developing a greater understanding of these concepts “are the intention of Lewis and the intention of the play.”
Since “The Screwtape Letters,” McLean has returned to C.S. Lewis a couple more times. He enjoys adapting Lewis’ work because he “deals with basic first principles.”
McLean also adapted Lewis’ “The Great Divorce” for the stage, and wrote “The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis,” a play based on Lewis’ memoir, “Surprised by Joy.”
When “The Most Reluctant Convert” was adapted into a film, McLean starred as the older version of the writer.
C.S. Lewis remains relevant
Audiences continue to find meaning in Lewis’ work because his messages are still relevant, said McLean. His ongoing relevancy is what has kept “The Screwtape Letters” regularly on stage for the past decade.
“I think (Lewis) is more relevant today than he’s ever been,” McLean said. “He had this amazing ability to translate (ideas) into magnificent prose and speech. And he did all of that from a Christian perspective.”
He continued, “And I really resonate with that because it is articulation of the Christian faith. And particular aspects of the Christian faith are so powerful that they speak to people that are true believers and other people that really recognize brilliance and wisdom at a very high level.”
McLean believes audiences relate to “The Screwtape Letters,” in particular, because most people understand evil exists in the world, but have not sourced that evil to a “supernatural being.”
Through “The Screwtape Letters,” Lewis does a good job of bringing reality to that “supernatural being” while leaving out common understanding that includes “pitchforks and hooves and horns.”
Both the text and the play also demonstrate that there is “a good that’s fighting” against evil, he explained.
“I think those big, big, big, big themes really resonate with people, whether they’re super religious or not,” McLean said.
‘The Screwtape Letters’ to get film adaptation
After several years of working with the C.S. Lewis Company, McLean’s production company, Fellowship for Performing Arts, has been granted the rights the produce a film adaptation of “The Screwtape Letters,” he told the Salt Lake City audience after the play on Saturday.
The film, he said, will be different than the book, noting, “It’ll have to be opened up.”
Rather than staying entirely focused on Screwtape’s letters, the film will introduce audiences to the characters of the patient, the patient’s love interest, Wormwood and other demons.
They are currently in the early stages of the film adaptation, McLean said, but production is anticipated to begin in late 2027.
“The exciting thing is (it has) never been made into a film, and our company has the worldwide rights to make the film. So it’s a very exciting proposition,” he told the Salt Lake City audience. “It’s also a tremendous responsibility to get it right and to make sure that we articulate the kind of worldview that Lewis had.”