It would be very hard to think about playing the devil in a play. In “The Screwtape Letters” which began showing in Washington, D.C. on April 17th and ran through May 18th, Max McLean played the lead character from the C.S. Lewis’ book with the same title. Mr. McLean sat down with The Christian Post and chatted about how he felt about playing a devil and what he thinks is the most common temptation in society today.
When The Christian Post asked him how he felt about playing a devil and if it was difficult because he was a Christian, McLean said that from actually an acting perspective, it was a lot of fun. That’s the reality of if, but as a Christian, he said that was what had been very helpful about it is that he (Screwtape) exposed in him his pride because he is pure pride. So in order to play him you have got to just go for those places which unfortunately were quite easy for him to find. I think that we can all relate to that pride aspect.
McLean said that what he most admired about C.S. Lewis is that he was so self-forgetful. He could say “What if I look at it from the other point of view?” and that is where the genius of Screwtape is. First of all , it really takes the enemy very seriously, which is of course is like the James verse about you believe in God, great, the demons believe in God and they shudder. That is exactly where Screwtape is at.
When asked which temptation from the play he thought was most frequently employed in today’s modern society McLean said that the world view is that being cool is better than being authentic, where superficiality is more important than substance, and if the devil can he’d like us to stay on the external and not deal with the character issues, which is firmly rooted in humility. He wants us to get outside of ourselves and that is why he wants so much noise that we don’t have any quiet time with our Lord and we can’t really reflect. I think Mr. McLean hit it on the mark. The devil loves chaos so that we can’t have that quiet time with God and really self evaluate our character.
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Affectionately Yours, Screwtape