Searching for Meaning
C.S. Lewis' examination of spiritual struggle comes to life in People's Branch Theatre's new production
by Martin Brady
Till We Have Faces
Presented by
People's Branch Theatre
June 10-19 at the
Darkhorse Theater
It took British author C.S. Lewis more than 30 years to find a way to fully express his ideas on the ancient myth of Psyche and Cupid. Lewis was a young man when he first conceived poetry on this theme, but a middle-aged man when he completed the novel Till We Have Faces, which represents a mature and erudite rumination on questions of God, justice and the meaning of life.
It is certainly a tribute to Lewis the writer that, despite his linkage to so-called Christian literature and his knack for religious allegory, he continues to be widely read and referenced. His works also have another life on the stage. People's Branch Theatre enters into the Lewis arena this week, when it opens its new adaptation, conceived by the company's former artistic director, Brian Niece, and now overseen by new AD Matt Chiorini. The play's director is Denice Hicks.
Till We Have Faces closes the book on the 2003-2004 PBT season, whereupon Chiorini starts fresh with his own new season beginning in the fall. "When Denice came on board to direct, we began to ask ourselves why we should care about this one woman's spiritual journey. To that end, we made it a universal story, relevant to today."
The topic of God is always relevant, however, and Till We Have Faces invites an audience of theatergoers to ponder essential questions about human relations with the deity.
The Lewis novel has a cast numbering a dozen or so. The PBT version focuses specifically on the two main characters: Psyche and her older sister, Queen Orual, who, after a lifetime of bitterness and lovelessness, discovers liberation and truth.
"Lewis intended a fictional kingdom of Glom, a barbaric kingdom," Hicks says. "His book is the spiritual evolution of a society through the eyes of its queen. Lewis took 300 pages to do a whole lifetime. We're doing it in an hour."
Actresses Holly Allen and Keiana Richard carry the load of the play's point-counterpoint approach. The production will also feature shadow representations of other characters through screen projections and a silent background ensemble that will take the stage at various times.
"Orual's struggle is one she shares with all humanity and in the face of God," Hicks says. "Her story concerns the light and beauty of acceptance vs. the dark and ugliness of resistance. Ultimately, it's a story about faith."
"Orual is (not a symbol) but an instance," Lewis himself wrote of his novel's lead character. "[She's] a 'case' of human affection in its natural condition, true, tender, suffering, but in the long run tyrannically possessive and ready to turn to hatred when the beloved ceases to be its possession. What such love particularly cannot stand is to see the beloved passing into a sphere where it cannot follow."
"This is not kitchen-sink realism," Chiorini adds. "This is larger than life, epic in scale. It's a Greek tragedy in a lot of ways, with relevant Christian themes. We've taken a lot of liberties and condensed the subplots. We didn't add anything, we just found more places in the book to borrow ideas. It's a streamlined adaptation."
Typically, PBT is working with a small budget, which means doing things with fewer technical frills and added focus on creative performance. "This is not conventional theater," says Richard. "It's more physically active, and it gives you a chance to stretch as an artist."
Despite the play's serious themes, Hicks claims to be going more for the playful than the heady. "I'm urging the actors to tell the story with their bodies," she says.
PBT hasn't mounted a new work in almost a year. With Till We have Faces, the company turns a corner. "This production represents the end of the previous PBT," Chiorini says, "where the focus was on spiritual transcendence and the spiritual journey, and which created some really good shows. Our new focus will be to create experimental art, to become Nashville's leading experimental theater rather than Nashville's spiritual quester."
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