Uncle Screwtape and Toadwood his Scribe

I had an opportunity to go and see FPA Theatre Company’s production of C.S. Lewis‘ “The Screwtape Letters” a week ago. It is playing at the old Mercury Theater at 3745 N. Southport in Chicago. It stars Max McLean (who also co-adapted the script) as “His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape,” and Karen Eleanor Wight as “Toadpipe,” his demonic personal secretary and scribe.

C. S. LEWIS (Author) (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably the most influential Christian writer and apologist of his day. He published The Screwtape Letters in 1942 wherein he presented a humorous and perceptive exchange between two devils named Screwtape and Wormwood. He used the book to deal with moral questions about good vs. evil, temptation, repentance, and grace.

Here is C.S. Lewis’ own INTRODUCTION:

I have no intention of explaining how the correspondence, which I now offer to the public, fell into my hands.

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true, even from his own angle.

There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth.

C.S. Lewis
July 5, 1941
The Screwtape Letters