
Well acted, Well written, Uninvolving, Flat
See it if
You're a Lewis fan, or are up for a good looking, well written & acted if ultimately uninspiring evening of religious inquiry & philosophy.
Don't see it if
You'd rather experience an actual play or drama rather than a lecture, however intelligent, well-reasoned and smoothly performed.
Max McLean clearly knows his CS Lewis, and delivers a solid and convincing — if highly theatrical — iteration of the late author, relating in detail the logic and reasoning of his religious conversion to Christianity.
Erudite and intelligent as this Lewis is, however, he lacks any convincing passion or spark that might inspire or persuade us of this life changing event — the leap from atheism to faith and through to devout belief. Much is said, but little is shown: a weakness in the script, the dramaturgy and thus his argument. What should be a climactic moment is simply one more reminiscence by an interesting, if not particularly pleasant or engaging character out of P.G. Wodehouse.
The attractive set of Lewis's study is underused and never quite convincing. In spite of the detail and thought put into it, it never quite looks like much more than a set or a model room at Ikea.
In the end, McClean's retelling of this road to Damascus could learn focus and brevity from Saint Paul's