CS Lewis’s life onstage: Playwright Max McLean brings Further Up & Further In to nationwide tour

Sep 02, 2023

In his latest theatrical performance, actor and playwright Max McLean looks at the life of renowned Christian author C.S. Lewis and how he became "perhaps the most influential Christian thinker of the 20th century."

Lewis is best known for his fantasy book series The Chronicles of Narnia, which was turned into a film series and produced by Walt Disney Productions and Walden Media.

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McLean will bring Further Up & Further In to the stage in Washington, D.C., in his tour stop set for June 7-18. The play follows the previous performance of The Most Reluctant Convert, which looks at how Lewis found his faith, turning from once being one of the most vigorous deniers of Christianity.

"I can't think of any play that we've done that has touched people as deep in their response to it," McLean said of Further Up & Further In. "Lewis is really digging deep, and when you dig deep with Lewis, you're digging super deep."

McLean said bringing Lewis's life to the stage has had its challenges due to how well read and spoken the Narnia author was.

"There's always challenges with Lewis because he's so erudite and he takes you a little further up and further in than you're prepared for, so the job of the dramatist is to bring that to a level that people get immediately," McLean said. "And I think with our design team, our production team, we've got magnificent projection design — probably the best I've seen in a long time."

McLean said the film will provide audiences with many "aha moments."

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Further Up & Further In will make additional tour stops in Missouri, Michigan, Colorado, and California throughout June and July.

Lewis was born in 1898 in Ireland and became a literary scholar, holding academic positions at Oxford and Cambridge universities. He died in 1963.