The C. S. Lewis Double Whammy!

A photo from the Fellowship for Performing Arts production

You friends in the greater Seattle area are hereby invited to the

 C. S. Lewis Great Divorce Double Whammy 

It's a theater show! It's a book club! It's two nights out without children!

The Theater Show: The Great Divorce 

Friday, February 27, at 8pm. 

Seattle's Moore Theatre.

The book club: the  Friday before, February 20, at 7:30pm. Room S-141 of Bellevue Presbyterian Church. Snacks and drinks provided. You bring your questions and insights!

Here are Ten Things I Love, all rolled into this double-whammy event:

1. Live theater.

2. In particular, live "readers theater"-style theater. Ever since I was in a readers theater elementary school production of Henry and Ribsy, this has been the case.

I felt this way, after my own readers theater performance

3. C. S. Lewis' actual full name: Clive Staples Lewis. Awesome. It makes me think of Clive Owen in an office supply store.

Clive Owen, who is, I suspect, almost as handsome as Clive Staples

4.  The Great Divorce. With the exception of his Narnia books, this is my favorite of Clive's works. A book about hell! What's not to love? How many books help you understand the concept of hell? (Well, okay, I did read Sartre's Huis Clos in high school French class, and that was also helpful: "Hell? Hell is other people!")

5. Good reviews. As in, this show has them. I still remember that Shakespeare-in-the-Park production we sat through where the acting s-t-u-n-k. Even the price (free) didn't make up for the two hours of my life lost. This stage production of The Great Divorce retains Clive's "lively wit and generous sense of humor" in a "stunning" and "fascinating" and "thought-provoking" production.

6. Discounted tickets. Yep, where twenty or more are gathered in Clive's name, there are the box office fees waived and a generous amount shaved off the top. We've called in for a special deal, and if we can get over twenty people (shouldn't be a problem--we're already at nine), we get nice seats under $50.

7. A book club beforehand. I could talk books all day, all night, and I hope you can too. We'll gather a week before the show to talk about The Great Divorce so we know that puppy backwards and forwards.

8. Snacks and drinks. My co-host has offered to bring them to the book club portion of the Double Whammy.

9. A chance to make new friends. I'm publicizing the Double Whammy to various BelPres groups, but you are certainly welcome to invite anyone you like (provided they're 13YO+). The next time someone tells you to "go to hell," tell them you've already bought tickets for February 27, and you'd love it if they came along!

10. If the Friday show doesn't work for you (or you take a sudden dislike to everyone you meet at the book club the week before), you can catch another performance Saturday, February 28 at 4pm.

[Notes: the King County library already has holds placed on The Great Divorce, but it's only $4 on Kindle or maybe you can nab the church library copies before anyone else does. Or, heck, since Presbyterians tend to be nuts about Clive, I bet you could borrow a copy.

And if you can't wait to start learning and have lots of time, check out the wonderful series of lectures Earl Palmer gave on C. S. Lewis at University Presbyterian Church. (Under Audio & Video, scroll down to Classes & Events. Click on "Episodes." The five-part series is called "C. S. Lewis: Caught Off Guard.")]

Please do message me at christinadudley@gmail.com if you'd like to join us for the C. S. Lewis Great Divorce Double Whammy. We'd like to get a head count for book club snacks, and how else will you get on the list for the discounted ticket info?