C.S. Lewis - Screwtape - John Huston's One Man Show

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Saturday, May 21st, 2016
7:30 PM

Cathedral Hosts UNO Fest Actor in Award-Winning Solo Show Christ Church Cathedral presents one performance only of SCREWTAPE: a one-man show, freely adapted and performed by John D. Huston, from The Screwtape Letters and Screwtape Proposes a Toast, by C.S. Lewis.

“Sly, wicked . . . excellent!” Edmonton Journal

Alongside The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters is one of C.S. Lewis’s most popular works. It purports to be a series of letters from a “Senior Demon” named Screwtape to his nephew, a “Junior Tempter” named Wormwood. The uncle offers his young pupil advice on how best to tempt a human being, known only as “The Patient,” down the “gentle road to hell.”

The letters offer an amusing, thought-provoking view of human life and religious faith, seen from the Devil’s perspective. Lewis later published a short sequel, entitled Screwtape Proposes a Toast. It takes the form of an after-dinner speech given by Screwtape at the Tempter’s Training College for young demons. “Full of clever wit and well-placed laughs.” Onstage (Ottawa) John D. Huston, who has over twenty solo shows to his credit, adapted Screwtape two years ago, and has since performed it across Canada. Last year, he won the Best Actor Award from Ottawa’s Capital Critics’ Circle for his performance at that city’s Fringe Festival. His Victoria appearance is possible because he is coming to town to play Shylock for UNO Fest.

“Pitch-perfect performance and brilliantly adapted script.” CBC Winnipeg

Huston notes: “The Screwtape Letters are described as anti-sermons, which is why I love performing Screwtape in a neo-Gothic Cathedral.” Lewis’s Screwtape wrote letters; Huston’s devil is wired up for the new century. “Hell has all the toys,” says Huston. “I’ve updated many things in Lewis’s seventy-year old text to reflect the way we communicate and talk now, but his essential message remains the same: how easy it is for us to follow our worst instincts, and how important it is to resist hatred, selfishness and despair.”