For the first time in school history, hell was put on stage in a live performance of C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. On October 29, Notre Dame students filled the house at the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center (DPAC) to watch the sold-out show, featuring award-winning actor Brent Harris in the role of Screwtape.
The play was presented by the Fellowship for Performing Arts (FPA), a “not-for-profit New York City-based production company producing theatre and film from a Christian worldview to engage a diverse audience.” The FPA first came to Notre Dame last fall, at the invitation of the Moreau Program. Senior Program Director Andrew Whittington remarked, “FPA—and their Campus Initiative team—are excellent, faith-filled partners and are eager to reach as many ND students as possible.”
The Screwtape Letters follows a series of notes from a senior devil, Screwtape, advising his younger nephew, Wormwood, in the ways of tempting a human, his assigned “patient.” Originally intended to be paired with a sequel of one angel training another in a similar style, the purpose of the book was to expose the constant and quiet influence of demons in our lives. As Lewis said, “the Letters show that there are no ordinary actions. It is a battle all the way from here to heaven.”
Lewis includes a warning in the introduction to his book—which was also included in the program’s playbill—saying, “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.”
In the production, the FPA moved away from traditional horrors and instead portrayed the psychological reality of spiritual warfare. Artistic Director Max McLean described the setting as “a morally inverted world where up is down, good is bad, God is called ‘the Enemy’ and Satan is described as ‘Our Father Below’.”
The play itself is presented across two arcs. The first centers on the patient’s conversion to Christianity and marriage that ultimately leads him to sanctity. The second is that of Screwtape himself who, in his attempts to drag the patient to Hell, becomes the “defeated devil.”
Opening with an address given by Screwtape to the recent graduates of the Tempters’ Training College, the rest of the performance focused on Screwtape’s reactions and responses to the inexperienced Wormwood’s letters.
Each scene consisted of the assistant devil Toadpipe recording Screwtape’s verbal message to his nephew. When describing human situations, Screwtape would possessively force Toadpipe to impersonate human characters, making the letters more tangible to the audience while also revealing the truly manipulative nature of hell. In this way, he describes how Wormwood should distract and tempt the patient case by case. Brent Harris, who played Screwtape, expressed Lewis’ humor through the ironic ways in which devils tempt humans.
Many of the seats in DPAC were filled by students completing their Moreau First-Year Seminar (FYS) co-curricular requirements. The Moreau FYS, a one-credit course required of all freshmen to promote holistic character formation, offered the show as a co-curricular event, giving tickets to 125 students who registered online.
In an interview with the Rover, Whittington said, “While the event was explicitly linked with our seminar’s discussion on ‘hope’ (and how God’s grace can transform brokenness and suffering), I suspect [the audience] picked up on a variety of connections between the performance and our Moreau FYS, including the significance of practiced, disciplined attention, friendship, family, and leisure in the pursuit of a life well-lived (the opposite of what Screwtape and Wormwood desire for their ‘patient’).”
Whittington also told the Rover that he hopes to continue working with the FPA, saying, “In light of the resoundingly positive and appreciative feedback we’ve received from students, and the high demand to attend the show (after Moreau-purchased tickets were all claimed, an additional 40 first-year students signed up for the ‘waitlist’ to potentially attend the show), we hope to work with the FPA to expand access to students next year and potentially move to a larger venue in DPAC.”
Student responses when asked of their impression regarding the play were profoundly positive. Freshman Kristin Joseph told the Rover that though she entered uncertain of what to expect, the play made a lasting impact on her, saying, “They did an amazing job keeping it engaging and fast-paced with all the acting and stage effects. Seeing the play performed in such a memorable way helped me remember key points after, like the role that noise plays in distracting us from true prayer or how we are members of an eternal Church that spans space and time.”
Freshman Marie Spencer told the Rover she enjoyed the creativity that went into making a visual performance from a storyline based on the exchange of letters. She emphasized, “When you think of the Screwtape Letters you don’t necessarily think of the visual medium, but I think the production team did a wonderful job.”
Joseph Kurkowski is a freshman in Morrissey Manor studying physics. He is not actually twins with Peter Kurkowski. Stop asking. If you really wish to ask him about this, he can be reached at jkurkows@nd.edu.