'Screwtape' cast does a devilishly good job

By BEVERLY FRIEND
Theater Critic

     Bring us food, or be eaten?"
     The devilish duo of Uncle Screwtape and his nephew Wormwood operate under this threat.  Either they corrupt and capture Mike Green's soul, or they will themselves be the main course for their fellow fiends.
     In this well-acted play, Vincent Lonergan does an excellent job as the bombastic Screwtape, a devil more deft at extolling than executing his skills.  His biggest triumph was corrupting Nero and flinging both the emperor and his fiddle to the world below.  (He now regrets flinging the fiddle).  He is sure he knows all the answers and that Wormwood (Marc Collins) will follow his advice.  That's not what happens.
     Instead of corrupting, Wormwood is corrupted - starting with liking his prey, Green (Joel Friend), and on to total humanization.
     Alison Aske is wonderfully seductive as the succubus Slumprimpet, while Sierra Cleveland skillfully portrays Green's love - not lust - interest Judy MacAdam.  Jennifer Milton is winsome as the betrayed girlfriend of the cad, Rex Skinner (Dana Marini).  Lisa Stran provides the perfect overly protective, hypocritical mother.
     However, fans of C.S. Lewis' brilliant, witty "The Screwtape Letters" - 31 epistles of seductive advice from an avuncular old-timer to his naive relative - will likely be disappointed.  James Forsyth's 1972 play departs considerably from the original, failing to capture the subtleties of the Lewis satire, a masterpiece of reverse theology.  Overly rapid dialogue and excessive yelling blur the satire in many scenes.  Though doing their devilish damnedest, the cast can't make up for that.

Through Feb. 24
TinFish Theatre, 4247 N. Lincoln
Tickets $14-$17.50. (773) 549-1888

     The hero of James Forsyth's "Scretape," based on C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape  Letters, is quite litterally a friendly devil. Apprentice fiend Wormwood has been given his first evil assignment on Earth.  Hs is to win for hell the soul of an everyday bloke named Mike Green.  The problem is that Wormwood has a bad case of "Feeling for."  He feels for the humans he is meant to tempt, and his empathy stands inthe way of him earning his "master's degree of accredited temptation."
     As wormwood, an entertaining Marc Collins is the embodiment of youthful ambition crossed with peevish anxiety.  His occasional bouts of overconfidence and scorn for his elders are as convincing as his amateurish bluster and disappointed realization that things are not going as he had planned.
     Collins' energetic performance is complemented well by Vincent Lonergan's turn as Wormwood's Uncle Screwtape, who may bill himself as "Nero's Nemesis," but has really suffered a string of failures.  Screwtape is at times a pompous teacher and at others is a desperate supplicant begging one last chance.  Lonergan has the charisma to make this character appealing, whether he is giving in to superiority or sniveling.
     While this duo captures their characters' eccentricities successfully, the demon temptress Slumtrimpet is a bit too much to take.  This is not entirely actress Alison Aske's fault (although her interpretation is predictable).  Slumtrimpet is dressed as if she is on the deck of "Star Trek's" Enterprise )one of only a few misses by costume designer Maria Fishinger) and is too often bathed in red light (Joshua Michaels overtates matters in his lighting design).
     Among the play's humans, Joel Friend and Jennifer Milton turn in noteworthy performances.  As Mike, acting on his own or as led by the demons, Friend is solid, although his accent can go astray.  But it is when he plays Mike inhabited by Wormwood that Friend shines.  Playing a misguided young country girl who loves a jerk, Milton reveals delightful facial and physical expressiveness.
     Director Laurie Kladis could have highlighted even more of the humor (opportunities for physical comedy were underplayed) and helped some of the case to develop deeper characterizations, but overall TinFish has succeeded in giving "Screwtape" a rich comic life that reaches beyond the message.

                                                                                            Jenn Goddu