FPA to perform C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Great Divorce’
Fellowship for Performing Arts, a nonprofit New York City-based production company producing theatre and film from a Christian worldview to engage a diverse audience, returns to live theatrical performances in Grand Rapids at DeVos Performance Hall Saturday, Nov. 6, at 4 p.m., with one performance only of the hit national tour of C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce."This updated and expanded version of the original production features four actors portraying 22 vivid characters. They take a strange bus trip from hell to the outskirts of paradise, where they are given an opportunity to stay or return to hell . . . forever divorced from heaven. The choice proves to be much harder than imagined. And it all takes place in 90 minutes!
The cast of "The Great Divorce" includes Joel Rainwater (The Lion King), Jonathan Hadley (Jersey Boys), Carol Halstead (Gore Vidal's The Best Man) and Tom Souhrada (Mary Poppins, Kinky Boots).
The Great Divorce is a companion piece to FPA's adaptation of Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters."
"In The Great Divorce, Lewis poses a most challenging question," said FPA artistic director Max McLean. "Are the gates of hell locked from the inside?"
Through the play Lewis, responds, "There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.' All that are in hell, choose it. The choice of every lost soul is 'Better to reign in hell than serve in Heaven.' There's always something they'd rather have than joy."
