CL Critic Kevin C. Madigan Recommends:Actor and playwright Max McLean, head of the Fellowship for Performing Arts in New York, has spent a couple of decades creating stage adaptations of the works of C.S. Lewis, Irish theologian and author of The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters and the science fiction-based Ransom Trilogy. McLean’s latest production is C.S. Lewis on Stage: Further Up & Further In, “a state-of-the-art theatrical experience of startling imagery, evocative music and Lewis’ amazing storytelling,” a press release reveals. Lewis, an avowed atheist who converted to Christianity in middle-age, also won acclaim for his scholarly tomes on Norse mythology and Medieval and Renaissance literature, and all his books remain in print decades after their first editions were published. Further Up is a revised version of McLean’s The Most Reluctant Convert, a play and film in which he portrayed Lewis. “When Lewis moved from vigorous debunker to believer, it wasn’t obvious he would become the most influential Christian writer of the past hundred years,” says McLean. — KCM
From the venue:
From the producers of The Screwtape Letters comes a dazzling, new theatrical experience that takes you further up and further into the spiritual journey of C.S. Lewis.
When Lewis came to faith in 1931, it wasn’t obvious how his journey would unfold. Why did the BBC suddenly give him a national audience to deliver unprecedentedly popular radio talks that would become Mere Christianity? How did Hitler’s devious charm influence the writing of The Screwtape Letters? Why was Lewis such an effective apologist/evangelist to skeptics? Was it prayer? Was it his expectation of the Second Coming? Or his profoundly deep longing for Heaven?
Using Lewis’ own words within a vividly immersive, multimedia experience, award-winning actor Max McLean takes you Further Up & Further In the mind and heart of one of the most imaginative and gifted writers in history.
CL RECOMMENDS