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Entertainment

HELLUVA GOOD TIME

THE Theatre at St. Clement’s may be located in a converted church, but by entering it you’ll be going straight to hell. That, at least, is the setting for “The Screwtape Letters,” a theatrical adaptation of the 1942 religious-themed epistolary novel by writer C.S. Lewis that first brought him fame.

The play is composed nearly entirely of missives written by the titular character, “His Abysmal Sublimity Screwtape” (Max McLean), to his unseen nephew Wormwood, a devil in training. Wearing a plush smoking jacket and reclining in a comfy chair in his office in hell, Screwtape, an administrator for the boss that he calls “Our Father Below,” is counseling the neophyte Wormwood in his efforts to tempt a Christian man, dubbed “the patient,” to the other side. This advice is presented in the form of letters dictated to his personal secretary Toadpipe (Karen Eleanor Wright), a silent but occasionally grunting demon who periodically illustrates the lessons through stylized movement.

The piece’s adaptors – director Jeffrey Fiske and lead actor McLean – have been largely faithful to the original text, with the addition of a prologue in which Screwtape delivers an amusing graduation address at the “Tempters’ Training College for Young Devils.”

Although inevitably somewhat static, the essentially literary proceedings have been enlivened with an imaginative theatricality, thanks to the use of ingenious sound, lighting and various other effects. Adding greatly to the evening’s entertainment value are the wonderful performances. Wright infuses her turn with a striking physicality, while the commanding McLean delivers his pronouncements in such plumy, mellifluous tones – even the way he pronounces his name sounds portentous – that it’s easy to imagine being convinced to sell one’s soul.

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS
Theatre at St. Clement’s, 423 W. 46th St.; (212) 279-4200. Through Jan. 6.