C.S. LEWIS AT GEORGIA TECH

~Doc Lawrence~


ATLANTA-The play is subtitled "the most reluctant convert," and for nearly two fast-paced hours on a Sunday afternoon Down South the theater audience was ever so close to Oxford University, being taught and entertained by the one-time college Don, author, philosopher, storyteller and inventor of fables, C. S. Lewis. Actor/playwright Max McLean created and starred in the production before a packed house at the Ferst Center for the Arts on Georgia Tech's Midtown Atlanta campus.

The play, according to McLean, was largely Lewis' own words drawn from the large body of published works, but all before Narnia and prior to his marriage to Joy Davidman. McLean, a stage veteran who has starred in "Othello" and played Stanley in "A Streetcar Named Desire," along with many other plays, offered that his Atlanta performance was an exploration of Lewis' dramatic conversion to Christianity.

The script was vintage Lewis: witty, sarcastic, irreverent and at all times simmering with charm and good humor. No road to Damascus moment for Professor Lewis. He became a committed Christian riding to the zoo on a motorcycle with a friend.

Georgia Tech's Ferst Center

McLean heads the Broadway-based Fellowship For Performing Arts, a theatrical company that creates theatre from a Christian worldview. Bringing C.S. Lewis to this wonderfully busy city that honors the arts is a tribute to who we are and a challenge to extend ourselves to become even better. It is, after all, a momentous step toward a higher life.