Screwtape Letters DVD Dramatized (Focus on the Family Radio Theatre) [Audiobook, Box set] [Audio CD]

From AudioFile Magazine:
Master demon Screwtape, played by a marvelously diabolic Andy Serkis, can sound sympathetic, urbane, and ruthless (like the best of devils) all in a single breath when he offers a little advice to his nephew, Wormwood, regarding the temptation, persecution, and ultimate destruction of the human soul. In this clear and well-crafted dramatization of C.S. Lewis's 31 satirical letters, both story and moral journey are accentuated by the wonderful acting chemistry between Serkis, who voiced Gollum in THE LORD OF THE RINGS, and Bertie Carvel's deftly understated Wormwood. A superb supporting cast, sound effects, and music that re-creates the ambiance and gravitas of Lewis's war-torn 1940s England round out this intelligent production. This is audio theater at its best. (B.P.)
Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

Screwtape Letters is one of my favourite books, so I approached this production with some apprehension. I need not have feared. Andy Serkis is the personification of Screwtape. Various imaginative devices are used with good effect to bring the letters to life and to locate the action in a real time and place. The edge to the relationship between the two demons builds beautifully, and I thoroughly enjoyed the evocation of the working machinery of hell as a dreary (un?)civil service.

I certainly agree with what has been said so far about this excellent quality dramatisation, with some minor reservations.

Some customers may be mislead by the way in which Amazon advertise this product, although the dedicated website setup by Focus on the Family does help clarify what you will actually get when you buy this "audio Drama". It is advertised by Amazon as a DVD, but in practice, it is a multimedia package comprising a DVD and four CD's. The CD's contain the full drama in full stereo, including some suitably spooky stereo illustrations to underline particularly diabolical utterances. The actual drama takes up three full CD's and two to three final scenes spill on to the fourth CD. The remainder of the fourth disc has 10 songs which are supposedly inspired by The Screwtape Letters and four of the songs are used as background music within the actual drama itself. The fourth CD is then concluded by CS Lewis's afterword to the Screwtape Letters written in the 1960's and an afterword from Focus on the family. Right at the very end, there is even a "Ghost scene".

The DVD contains short films or trailers for the dramatised Screwtape Letters, with much of the material appearing on the dedicated website set up by Focus on the Family to promote this product. There is also a 5.1 surround sound mix of the audio drama, with the dialogue conforming to the standard cinema audio norms, i.e. most of the dialogue is heard in the centre of a virtual screen with music and effects swirling around you.

Although this is dramatised, the text is faithful for the most part to Lewis's original writing, but in some cases, the examples Screwtape uses to amplify some of his points are left out, presumably to keep the drama fast moving. For example, when Screwtape teaches his nephew about attractive traits between men and women, there is a reference in the book to the fact that demons have taught women to dislike men's beards, the drama refers to the fact that the dark spirits have taught the humans to focus on secondary characteristics of attraction which are of no lasting benefit, but leaves out the reference to men's beards and also omits the fact that the preference of men for women who look like boys is partly in keeping with the age of jazz. Also, given that this production is presumably designed for Americans, certain English colloquialisms are translated for their convenience, hence Booby is translated as Idiot.

Given that so much effort has been put into trying to maintain an authenticity to Lewis's original text, some of these omissions and translations seem a little strange and the songs associated with this production don't appear to have much relevance other than that some of them are used as backing music in the drama. I am slightly surprised that these songs weren't for example used as interludes in the DVD surround mix providing natural breaks or rest bites from the drama. I therefore can't help thinking that I would have preferred more of the original text if it meant that the fourth disc was better used rather than having these peculiar songs., the songs are not bad songs in their own right, but they don't really add to the drama in my view.

To Conclude, this multimedia package appears to have been designed so that a large family can enjoy it individually or all together and it also seems to be designed to appeal to a visual audience who are not used to radio dramas. I don't personally set much store by their reference to cinema sound, so the CD's would be my preferred way of listening to this production and the DVD is perhaps more suitable for those who prefer cinema style presentation.