Phillyist Reviews... The Screwtape Letters

Tap dancing! Martial arts! Fire swallowing! S&M!

Is it the latest show by the Peek-A-Boo Revue?

No. It's the Lantern Theater Company's revival production of The Screwtape Letters, adapted from the book by C.S. Lewis by, and starring, Anthony Lawton. As with all of C.S. Lewis's works, Screwtape has a decidedly Christian slant— in this case, speaking on the ideas of faith and morality, and how their abandonment could mean eternal damnation— but the story and execution can still be enjoyable to the "heathen" audience.

The book is composed of a series of letters written by Screwtape, an upper-level demon (as far as the "lowerarchy" is concerned) to his nephew Wormwood, a junior tempter sent to earth for the sake of corrupting a young man's soul, such that when he dies, he'll be sent to hell. The play takes these letters and makes them into a ninety-minute lecture on good and evil, and how to cultivate the latter while pretending to be the former. That description might sound a little boring, but the production is anything but, thanks to Lawton's dynamic performance. So persuasive a Screwtape is he that at some points, you even find yourself agreeing with him. "Yes," you find yourself saying, "love is a construct!" Probably not what C.S. Lewis had in mind, but effective nonetheless.

Lawton is helped by the always-impeccable Geneviève Perrier. Usually more of a girl-next-door (as in the Lantern's The Lonesome West and Mum's Fantoccini Brothers Return), her mostly-silent role in Screwtape is dirty-hot, sexy in that kind of "I can't introduce you to my parents" kind of way. Playing Toadpipe, Screwtape's snarky secretary (say that five times fast!), Perrier enters between scenes and handles live fire (literally handles it), a giant bull whip, and some pretty serious-looking surgical instruments, all the time looking... like she was naughty enough in life to land herself a spot in Hell.

And though Lawton himself is a fantastic Screwtape, it's the entre-scenes with Lawton and Perrier that often steal the show. The monologues, although interesting, can get a little dull after a while (through no fault of Lawton's acting, but perhaps through fault of his adapting), and the dance numbers and pantomimed scenes rouse the audience from their theological navel-gazing and ready them for more. Do they have anything to do with the plot? Not much. But without them, The Screwtape Letters would feel incomplete and unsatisfying. Bravo to Lawton for anticipating this and rectifying it, giving the audience a complete, cohesive production. It's obvious why it was such a success that the Lantern decided to revive it.

Image of Anthony Lawton courtesy of the Lantern. All remaining productions of The Screwtape Letters are sold out, but the Lantern will have a waiting list available in their box office one hour prior to show time.