'The Great Divorce' looks at heaven and hell - Sept. 20

photo Tom Beckett, Christa Scott-Reed and Joel Rainwater are featured in C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce," to be presented in matinee and evening performances Saturday at the Tivoli Theatre.

IF YOU GO• What: "The Great Divorce"• When: 4 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20• Where: Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St.• Admission: $30.50, $40.50, $50.50, $60.50• Phone: 423-642-TIXS• Website: www.ChattanoogaOnStage.comNote: Appropriate for ages 13 and up; children under 4 will not be admitted into the theater.

C.S. Lewis' Dante-esque comedy "The Great Divorce" will be presented in two performances Saturday, Sept. 20, at the Tivoli Theatre by the Fellowship for Performing Arts, a New York City-based producer of live theater from a Christian worldview.

The play features some of Lewis' funniest characters, a collection of ghosts on a bus. It is an allegorical story about a bus ride from hell to heaven and a severe look at good and evil, grace and judgment.

It was published in an Anglican newspaper in 1944 and 1945, then as a book not long after. It has also been done as a film.

The narrator finds himself in a "grey town," which could be either hell or purgatory, depending on how long one stays.

After a time, he finds himself on a bus for those looking for an excursion. During the travels, the narrator meets his fellow travelers.

When they arrive at their destination, they discover they are all ghosts and while the landscape is lush and beautiful, it is unyielding to them. They can walk among the beauty and marvel at every leaf, for example, but they cannot so much as pick one up because it is too heavy.

Some of the travelers decide to return to the "grey town," and it is through their reasoning that much of the play's deeper meanings are revealed. The ghosts would rather hold on to their prior beliefs and habits than renounce them and be allowed to enter heaven.

Few realize that the things they hold important will eventually fade and that the "grey city" becomes hell.

Each performance includes an after-show talkback with Max McLean, founder and artistic director of Fellowship for Performing Arts.

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