C.S. Lewis was an English professor and scholar, an author of fantasy and science fiction, and a writer of many well-known Christian theological works. All of these qualities come to the fore in his allegorical novel “The Great Divorce.” The work seems an unlikely option for a twelve-grade school play, but this is exactly what Trinity School at Meadow View will be presenting this weekend at the Pozez Jewish Community Center.
What, precisely, is “The Great Divorce?” Rather than being about a marital breakup (as the title might suggest), the work references poet William Blake’s notion of “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.” Lewis begins his story like a sci-fi tale à la “The Twilight Zone” in which a group of travelers, gradually realizing they are deceased, find themselves on a trip on a bus to eternity. In addition to the story’s narrator, we meet a series of characters who personify some of our modern sins of life: one who disbelieves in the goodness of Heaven, a businessman who embodies superficiality, and a person who uses others’ sympathy to manipulate them. We eventually catch glimpses of hell and heaven; the former is not so much a place of torment, but is rather filled with the soulless and who are literally “see-through.” Heaven, by contrast, contains people who are solid and glow with a visible radiance of goodness.
We witnessed a rehearsal and got a sense of how well the students brought their characters to life. Faith Aylesworth wonderfully portrays the sophisticate, cultured in accent and gesture, who dismisses the value of theology. Eleni Ruiz similarly embodies the Grumbling Ghost; dressed as a prim housewife, her indignation and the resentment she has of those around her are the very essence of her character. Ani Tuft depicts the spirit of a person overly possessive of others. Interestingly, she wears a dress in nineteenth-century fashion, as the souls come from different points in history.
Other performers and their interesting characters include Michael Abraham as the enigmatic bus driver, Jon Kumnick as the Planning Ghost who thinks of Heaven in terms of potential business opportunities(!), and Isaac Patterson as a lizard who personifies temptations of the flesh.
This staging of “The Great Divorce” is especially successful in bringing out some of the work’s modernist tendencies that may not be obvious to one who reads the original book. One example is Claire Newsom performing as the narrator; there is a presumption in reading the book that the narrator is male, but the Trinity production shows this need not be the case. Similarly, the tale is told in the form of a series of non-linear vignettes; this non-linearity is highlighted in the performance, better showing how all of these spirits, regardless of the era in which they lived, share a common choice of destinies.
The school, located in Falls Church, adheres strictly to a classical curriculum, and requires its students to read and discuss works by authors such as Aeschylus, Dante, Descartes, and Dostoyevsky. In preparing for “The Great Divorce,” the students of the Trinity Class of 2024 have been writing journals exploring “The Great Divorce” in the light of these other authors. The play’s co-director, Mrs. Patty Whelpley, further explained: “We chose this play for two reasons. We knew it would be a perfect fit with the students’ senior Humanities curriculum filled with Dante and Dostoevsky. C.S. Lewis is so good at taking those very deep philosophical conversations and making them applicable to our lives. We also had a very strong group of actors, and we liked that this play would give them opportunities to fine-tune their talents in Lewis’ little vignettes.”
“The Great Divorce” is a significant philosophical and literary work by C.S. Lewis that is rarely performed on stage. I thus highly recommend this production, which will be performed free of charge at Pozez Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia (8900 Little River Tpk., Fairfax, VA), May 10 and 11 at 7:00 p.m.
