It was amusing today to go to google and put in “Max McLean Screwtape Letters” and find that they had posted Beth’s comments on the show from her Blog. From blog to published on a Theater website as a review. I love it! It was also interesting to view the TV interview posted there. Please do watch it. I think you would all enjoy it and would get a sense of the production.
Last night in small group we watched a tape of Dean Jones in his one man show “St. John in Exile”. It is a wonderful and insightful view of John at 86 on the Isle of Patmos. So much for my theater reviews for today. Next is Beth from the Screwtape website -
"This afternoon, my mom and I trekked downtown to see Max McLean in his one (well, really two) man show of CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters. I can't think of when I enjoyed a trip to the theater more - it was seriously wonderful.Max McLean has always been a dramatic reader to me. If you get the chance to hear his CD of Jonathan Edward's Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, do so. His voice and voice performance is amazing. But as Screwtape he was wonderful. And Toadpipe nearly stole the show - she was fantastic, not just as she scribbled down the letters, but as she became the personifications of the various illustrations Screwtape used in his letters."--Beth
This review by Perry (not me) was well word smithed and I wish I could write so well.
Usually, one-person shows stretch my patience, but this adaptation of C.S. Lewis's epistolary novel was a sinfully delicious exception. Scaling to an upper floor to St. Clement's Theatre, we look down on a wondrously appalling vision of hell, where His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape has his efficient little office. McLean veers deftly between the various Screwtapes we encounter in his letters. Generally, he is avuncular in his correspondence with his unseen acolyte Wormwood as this junior temptor strives here on earth to recruit his first soul to the netherworld. Yet as Wormwood's fortunes shift -- along with his own -- Screwtape may rage, shrivel into unctuous servility, or reveal his primal cannibalistic core.Greatly enriching this infernal treat was Karen Eleanor Wight as Toadpipe, Screwtape's eternally silent personal secretary. Slithering on the floor to transcribe her master's dictation, slinking up a pole to post it, Toadpipe was a constant undertow of evil even when Screwtape himself was his most charming and provocative -- a Cirque du Soleil imp turned into nightmare. During those delicious instances when she bared her teeth, we realized that the servile Toadpipe was also a carnivore, hungrily dependent on her master's scraps."
"This afternoon, my mom and I trekked downtown to see Max McLean in his one (well, really two) man show of CS Lewis' Screwtape Letters. I can't think of when I enjoyed a trip to the theater more - it was seriously wonderful.Max McLean has always been a dramatic reader to me. If you get the chance to hear his CD of Jonathan Edward's Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, do so. His voice and voice performance is amazing. But as Screwtape he was wonderful. And Toadpipe nearly stole the show - she was fantastic, not just as she scribbled down the letters, but as she became the personifications of the various illustrations Screwtape used in his letters."--Beth
This review by Perry (not me) was well word smithed and I wish I could write so well.
Usually, one-person shows stretch my patience, but this adaptation of C.S. Lewis's epistolary novel was a sinfully delicious exception. Scaling to an upper floor to St. Clement's Theatre, we look down on a wondrously appalling vision of hell, where His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape has his efficient little office. McLean veers deftly between the various Screwtapes we encounter in his letters. Generally, he is avuncular in his correspondence with his unseen acolyte Wormwood as this junior temptor strives here on earth to recruit his first soul to the netherworld. Yet as Wormwood's fortunes shift -- along with his own -- Screwtape may rage, shrivel into unctuous servility, or reveal his primal cannibalistic core.Greatly enriching this infernal treat was Karen Eleanor Wight as Toadpipe, Screwtape's eternally silent personal secretary. Slithering on the floor to transcribe her master's dictation, slinking up a pole to post it, Toadpipe was a constant undertow of evil even when Screwtape himself was his most charming and provocative -- a Cirque du Soleil imp turned into nightmare. During those delicious instances when she bared her teeth, we realized that the servile Toadpipe was also a carnivore, hungrily dependent on her master's scraps."
1 comment:
I enjoyed this. And how exciting to have your daughter's review used and appreciated! You must be very proud. Way to go, Lynellen! Your friend, Elona
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