“The Screwtape Letters’’ - a stage adaptation (by McLean and Jeffrey Fiske) of the C.S. Lewis novel that arrived at the Cutler Majestic Theatre last night for a run that ends tonight - is a none-too-subtle allegory and argument on behalf of Christianity. For all its transparent didacticism, though, “Screwtape Letters’’ manages to be both engrossing and entertaining, largely due to McLean’s silky, viperish performance as His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape, a top psychiatrist in the employ of Satan, whom he calls “Our Father Below.’’
As a devoted demon, Screwtape works in ceaseless opposition to “The Enemy,’’ a.k.a. God. “We want cattle who can finally become food,’’ says Screwtape. “He wants servants who can finally become sons.’’ (In this version of hell, human souls are the food source, as suggested by Screwtape’s office, designed by Cameron Anderson, which features a massive wall of skulls and bones.)
Along with his scale-covered secretary, Toadpipe, played last night by the remarkably agile and expressive Beckley Andrews (who alternates in the role with Tamala Bakkensen), Screwtape is presently on a mission is to lure a young (unseen) man on earth, whom he calls “the patient,’’ to eternal perdition. Screwtape fervently and painstakingly pursues this mission by means of a series of letters to Wormwood, a “Junior Tempter,’’ issuing elaborate instructions to the younger demon on how to corrupt the young man, loaded with alternately clever and ham-handed commentary on human foibles.
Special kudos to sound designer John Gromada, whose soundscape of hisses, crunches, and shrieks turns hell into a place you can hear as well as see.
Don Aucoin can be reached at aucoin@globe.com
