C.S. Lewis on Stage: Further Up & Further In @ Eisemann Center
—Review by Jan Farrington
When it came to God…C.S. Lewis was anything but a sectarian brawler. If you asked, he’d be glad to give you his best, calm, logical reasoning on the Christian faith—but this world-famous, pipe-smoking scholar of Oxford and Cambridge was not an arm-waving evangelist. When a World War II chaplain asked him for a “come to Jesus” speech for British soldiers about to go into combat, Lewis said it just wasn’t in him, replying (more or less): “You do the heart, padre. I’ll do the head.”
He joked that he was an impossibly high-brow Christian—but he meant it. And though he was loved by millions for the clarity of his writings about faith, a session of reading (or in this instance, watching) Lewis will leave you feeling your brain’s been on more than a “fun run”—it’s had a hard workout, stretches and all.
British actor and playwright Max McLean uses Lewis’ own words to bring this extraordinary thinker to life in C.S. Lewis on Stage: Further Up & Further In. The 90-minute show at the Eisemann Center is the world premiere of a tour from Fellowship for Performing Arts, a New York-based maker of theater and film “telling stories from a Christian worldview.” Further Up follows McLean’s play The Most Reluctant Convert, which told of the young Lewis’ long path from atheist to Christian—and a surprisingly public Christian at that.
McLean holds the stage eloquently, moving from desk to armchair to the “drinks” cabinet of his man cave…er, office. He didn’t expect religion to make him happy, he says—that’s what a glass of port was for. His voice is rich and rumbling; more than one source says his friend J.R.R. Tolkien modeled the deep-voiced Treebeard of Lord of the Rings on the sound of “Jack” Lewis holding forth. Sometimes the words come gently, sometimes like a shout of amazement or warning.
The performance begins in autobiography—Lewis was a scholar, teacher, and speaker, a writer of everything from works on the Christian experience to science fiction—and, of course, of the Narnia books for young readers. But the play’s central minutes focus on an exchange of letters with a young man who is interested in Christianity but wants proof, truth, certainty. Lewis’s letters back are gentle but blunt. This Jesus, he tells him, is either a lunatic, a liar…or telling the truth. There is no absolute certainty, but that’s true of many things in our lives—absolute trust in a friend, for example. Their back and forth is complex and compelling—but in the end, there is a “leap” to be made, he says.
McLean’s energy draws us into Lewis’ dramatic monologue, helped by shifting and colorful back-wall projections from designer Harry Feiner, and crisp, flowing music from composer John Gromada. The words come at us with near-Shakespearean speed and density—a challenging “head game” if you’re willing to stick it out.
Further Up is theater that aims to be heard by an “intellectually diverse audience,” writes McLean in his notes on the production. Lewis first became widely known during the London Blitz for his BBC broadcasts, later gathered in a print collection called Mere Christianity. His words interested a wide swath of listeners—Christians and non.
It’s likely that Further Up & Further In will find its audience mostly among believers and devotees of Lewis—but it’s a satisfying piece of theater even for those outside that circle. For them, McLean’s solo performance provides an introduction, an experience of old-school (here’s that word again) “high-brow” Christian apologetics—apologetics meaning “making the case” for the truth of it all.
An interesting theatrical endeavor at a time when the terms “Christian” and “intellectual” often feel very far apart.
WHEN: Through October 23
WHERE: Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts (Richardson)
WEB: eisemanncenter.com
