In C.S. Lewis’ satirical Christian apologetic novel, The Screwtape Letters, a senior devil, Screwtape, writes a series of letters to his nephew, Wormwood, a junior tempter tasked with leading a British man known as “the Patient” to damnation. Screwtape offers all manner of advice on how to undermine God’s word, God being referred to as “the Enemy” and Satan “Our Father Below.”
Aside from The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters is perhaps Lewis’ best-known work, and it was adapted for the stage in 2006 by Max McLean and Jeffrey Fiske. McLean first starred in the titular role with Fiske directing but has since directed several other actors in the role as the show played to sold-out audiences in major cities across the U.S. and beyond, including London, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Houston, Dallas, and Washington, D.C.
All told, more than 600,000 people have seen the production, and now you can see it on Sunday, Aug. 2, at 3 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center in SLO.
McLean is founder of the Fellowship for Performing Arts, a nonprofit specializing in productions from a faith-based worldview for a diverse audience.
“I’m an adult convert to Christianity, and [The Screwtape Letters] was one of the first books I read following my conversion [in the 1970s],” McLean explained from his Long Beach office during a Zoom call. “It hit me kind of like a ton of bricks. I think all of us are interested in the devil from an archetypal place, right? You know, what is the substance of evil? What is the source of evil? And Lewis personified it in a very clear way, so it gave me a sense of temptation and how the devil works from a psychological perspective that I found quite insightful. I learned later that as he wrote it, Lewis was actually working out his own battles with temptation.”
It wasn’t until years later that McLean thought to adapt the book for the stage.
“I never thought of [the book] as the theatrical literature,” he said.
But that all changed after then Drew University theater professor Fiske approached him after he did a show in a small New Jersey theater.
“He planted the idea like Screwtape plants ideas,” McLean laughed. “He said, ‘I think you’d make a really good Screwtape.’ I didn’t know if that was a compliment or not, but he had an idea of how to do it.”
McLean said if he could get the rights from the C.S. Lewis estate, he’d “have a go,” and he did.
“We saw it could be theatricalized because there is a story arc within the book that’s not obvious, but if you’re thinking dramaturgically, it does emerge. Because it essentially is a predator/prey story. Screwtape is a predator, and ‘the Patient’ is the prey.”
When the play comes to the PAC, either Brent Harris or Gregory Allen Jackson will play Screwtape. Harris played Scar in The Lion King national tour, and Jackson starred in the touring cast of Aaron Sorkin’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Both are very accomplished, and whoever plays Screwtape—never fear—he will get his comeuppance.
“Like the book, when our play begins, he’s a ‘master of the universe’ character who loves the way he looks, the way he talks. He’s the smartest guy in the room, pure pride,” McLean explained. “And he ends the story as a defeated devil. Well, that’s one story. The other story is ‘the Patient.’ The unsuspecting human on Earth who’s been the object of Screwtape’s attacks begins the story as rather indifferent to Christianity, and by the end of the story, he dies in a state of grace, in spite of all the efforts by Screwtape to try to ruin him and bring him to damnation.”
The audio version of Lewis’ book is about six hours, and the book itself comprises 31 letters, so obviously McLean and Fiske had to make some cuts while still staying true to Lewis’ message.
“We have 85 or 90 minutes, but within those 90 minutes, we touch on 24 of the 31 letters,” McLean explained. “And that’s important because we are following the throughline and the arc of the story Screwtape is telling. And of course, it all takes place during the Blitz, so the sense of mortality was significant, and that’s what got people’s attention.”
Lewis developed the idea for The Screwtape Letters after listening to Hitler’s Reichstag speech on July 19, 1940. The Blitz started on Sept. 7, 1940, and ran until May 16, 1941, relentlessly bombing London and eventually killing about 43,000 civilians. The book was written during the Blitz and first published in February 1942.
At the time, Lewis wrote, “I don’t know if I’m weaker than other people, but it is a positive revelation to me how, while the speech lasts, it is impossible not to waver just a little. Statements which I know to be untrue all but convince me, if only the man says them unflinchingly.”
Hitler’s dark charisma and ability to sell lies are reflected in Screwtape, and McLean said embellishing on Lewis’ text was entirely unnecessary.
“The language is so good. The constellation of huge archetypal ideas is so profound, and you can tell them in a very entertaining way. When I was imagining him, I had in my mind a little bit of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, a little of Iago in Othello, and a little bit of Lewis Black, the comedian. Everything is so over the top. Everything bothers him.”
The two-person show also features Screwtape’s secretary, Toadpipe, played by Shiloh Goodin.
“Toadpipe is the amanuensis, the secretary who visually interprets a lot of what Screwtape says, and occasionally, she turns into other characters to help tell the story,” McLean explained. “She’s a very physical, acrobatic actor who really does a good job.
“The stage is a replica of what we think of Screwtape’s office. There’re all kinds of skulls and bones, which reinforces the eating theme. Human souls are nourishment for demons, so the object is food. A predator needs prey.”
Whether you’re a Christian or not, this is a hugely entertaining show. The Associated Press called it “devilishly funny!” Newsweek named it among the best productions of the year (in 2018) in New York City. The Chicago Sun-Times called it “Smart! … Sizzling entertainment!” ∆
Contact Arts Editor Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in July 30- August 6, 2026.
