The Fellowship for the Performing Arts just announced that their critically acclaimed production, The Screwtape Letters (website), starring Max McLean, will embark on a national tour this fall. Future appearances include The Lesher Center for the Arts (October 2nd and 3rd), The Herberger Theater Center (October 30th and November 1st) Brown Theatre (November 6th), Coral Springs Center for the Arts (November 14th and 15th), Tivoli Auditorium (November 21st and 22nd) and Lansburgh Theatre, (December 16th through January 3rd).

Based on the C.S. Lewis book by the same name, the highly-acclaimed play has previously enjoyed sold-out runs and rave reviews in Chicago (at the Mercury Theater), New York, and Washington, D.C.

Read more after the jump, including a synopsis of the play and review excerpts.

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is a funny, provocative and wickedly witty theatrical adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ brilliant novel that explores the theme of spiritual warfare from a demon’s point of view.

Adapted for the stage by Jeffrey Fiske and Max McLean, THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, which runs 90 minutes without intermission, is set in an office in hell. The engaging play follows a senior devil, Screwtape, played by Max McLean, and his secretary, Toadpipe, played by Karen Eleanor Wight,as they train an apprentice demon, Wormwood, on how to “undermine faith and prevent the formation of virtues” in a young man who has just converted to Christianity. As Screwtape ridicules Wormwood and devilishly dictates his letters to Toadpipe, the fantastical creature transforms into laughingly recognizable figures with whimsical movement and wordless wit.

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Critics have raved that the show is “Very smart…richly rewarding…exuberant theatricality!,” (Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune), “THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is just about everything you want in a night at the theatre…,” (Daniel Kelly, NYTheatre.com), “A first rate production…Terribly entertaining… Screwtape boils over with wit” (Jayne Blanchard, The Washington Times), a “Hell of a good time…imaginative theatricality…wonderful performances” (Frank Scheck, New York Post), “Sly, funny, handsomely produced” (Celia Wren, Washington Post) and “Pure genius… an outstanding piece of work,” (John J. Miller, National Review)

When first published in 1942. THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS brought immediate fame to C.S. Lewis, a little known Oxford don whose field of study was Medieval English and literature. Over the past sixty-five years its wit and wisdom have made it one of his most widely read and influential works. One of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably the most influential Christian writer of his day, C.S. Lewis was a Fellow and Tutor of English literature at Oxford University until 1954 when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement.

His major contributions in literary criticism, children’s literature, fantasy literature, and popular theology brought him international renown. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract millions of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include: The Chronicles of Narnia, Out of the Silent Planet, and Mere Christianity.

The initial production of THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS opened at Theatre 315 in New York City in January 2006 for a limited three-week run. Due to popular demand it ran for ten sold-out weeks. After building on its success it reopened in the fall of 2007 at the larger Theatre at St. Clement’s for another twelve sold-out weeks to rave reviews from audiences and critics alike. In April 2008 it transferred to The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Lansburgh Theatre in Washington, D.C. for a five week run. Again it played for sold out and standing room-only audiences. In October 2008, it transferred again to the Mercury Theater in Chicago for a scheduled six week run that grew to six months. The Chicago Tribune called it “the most successful show in the history of the Mercury Theater.”

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is directed by Jeffrey Fiske and stars Max McLean as Screwtape and Karen Eleanor Wight as Toadpipe. Scenic design is by Cameron Anderson, costumes are by Michael Bevins, lighting by Jesse Klug, and sound is by Bart Fasbender. For tickets or more information visit www.ScrewtapeOnStage.com.

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, the hit play based on C.S. Lewis’ classic novel, now playing at The Mercury Theater, 3745 N. Southport Avenue , will feature expanded holiday performance schedule to include December 29 and 30 at 8 p.m. and a special New Year’s Eve performance on December 31.   After the New Year’s Eve 8 p.m. show, there will be a champagne toast in the theater lobby followed by a special talk-back with Max McLean (co-creator and star) and Jeffrey Fiske (co-creator and director), who will foster audience discussions about the show’s provocative themes and answer questions about how they adapted C.S. Lewis’ classic novel into a hit stage production. 

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS is directed by Jeffrey Fiske and stars Max McLean as Screwtape and Yvonne Gougelet as Toadpipe.  Scenic design is by Cameron Anderson, costumes are by Michael Bevins, lighting by Tyler Micoleau, and sound is by Bart Fasbender.  For more biographical or production information, visit www.ScrewtapeOnStage.com.

In my first preview of one of Kipling’s two impostors, triumph, I casually nodded to hubris as the most obvious mechanism that turns success into disaster, then went on to give another example that I thought was a bit subtler.

And now John Edwards forces me to come back to hubris. In case, you’ve been behind the moon, we now know that he cheated on his wife. More interestingly, we have now heard why he thinks he cheated. The key phrase in his mea culpa to ABC’s John Woodruff, was this: Becoming a “national public figure”, he said:

fed a self-focus, an egotism, a narcissism that leads you to believe you can do whatever you want, you’re invincible and there will be no consequences.

We always knew, of course, that Edwards had a narcissist in him, at least since we watched him preening here:

Narcissus, at least in Ovid’s version of the myth, was the handsome youth who fell in love with his own reflection as he bent down to drink from a stream, and then wouldn’t touch the water lest he ruffle the beautiful image in it, and so died of thirst. So it goes, as Vonnegut would say. Impostor beauty, as we might paraphrase.

So narcissism is slightly different from hubris, although Edwards conflates the two. Hubris is the classical Greek notion that power and success make people arrogant, and that this arrogance then invites disaster. Think Ken Lay, Eliot Spitzer, et cetera. And now, John Edwards?

Maybe, maybe not. I’ll give you one contra and one pro. The contra is Steven Berglas, a specialist in “narcissistic disorders” at Harvard Medical School for many years, who writes here that Edwards is kidding himself, and that it was in fact Edward’s failure to become Vice President in 2004 that is to blame:

I feel that Edwards had a need to re-assert his power and his masculinity (via an affair) because of his history of believing that his entire self-worth derived from success. Had Edwards not “proved his potency,” I feel he would have suffered ego-annihilation when he failed.

The pro comes from research by Cameron Anderson at Berkeley’s Haas School and Adam Galinsky at Northwestern, who found that perceived power does make people excessively optimistic and blind to risk. In one of their experiments, they discovered that those participants who were more powerful were less likely to use condoms. Who says academics never have fun?

Dacher Keltner a professor of psychology at Berkeley and coeditor of Greater Good in the May/June issue of the UTNE Reader writes:

These seductive notions are wrong. A new science of power has revealed that power is wielded most effectively when it’s used by people who are attuned to and engaged with the needs and interests of others. When it comes to power, social intelligence—reconciling conflicts, negotiating, smoothing over group tensions—prevails over social Darwinism.

Why social intelligence? Because of our ultrasociability. We accomplish most tasks related to survival and reproduction socially, from caring for our children to producing food and shelter. We give power to those who can best serve the interests of the group. Leaders who treat their subordinates with respect, share power, and generate a sense of camaraderie and trust are considered more just and fair.

Social intelligence is essential not only to rising to power, but also to keeping it. My colleague Cameron Anderson and I studied the structure of social hierarchies within college dormitories over the course of a year, examining who is at the top and who remains there. We’ve consistently found that it is the socially engaged individuals who keep their power over time.

While the rhetorical framing of this article troubles me a bit, I think its reassuring to know that cooperation and communication win out. Ultimately, love wins.