SHADOWLANDS – REVIEW OF PLAY ABOUT C. S. LEWIS IN LONDON

Reviewed by James Karas

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) had a play written about him and it was produced on Broadway, in London’s West End and in many other places. Why?

He was a brilliant scholar at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and earned well-deserved fame as an expert on 16^th century English literature. Broadway? He wrote a series of children’s books like the Narnia Chronicles that were bestsellers. You may have seen some of them at the Shaw Festival and many other theatres. But a play about him in the West End? He wrote 30 books? He is described as a Christian apologist. Did religious dedication qualify him for a play?

The answer to all the above is probably N0 but in middle age, at 54, he met a woman eighteen years younger than him, they became friends and the relationship had enough material to produce Shadowlands, a poignant, lyrical, captivating, often funny play that is now showing at the Aldwych Theatre in London. A movie was made based on the play.

The woman was Joy Davidman (1915-1960), an irrepressible American widow and admirer of Lewis. She was a talented writer in her own right. He invited her to Oxford for a visit, and they were attracted to each other as friends, platonically of course because, I guess, it had never occurred to Lewis that sex between couples existed.

Hugh Bonneville as C. S. Lewis, Jeff Rawle as 
Major W. H. Lewis and Maggie Siff as Joy Davidman. 
Photo credit Johan Persson

Despite the antipathy (is that polite enough?) of Lewis’s stuffy colleagues, the friendship blossoms and Joy asked him to marry her. She only wanted him to become her husband so she can get British citizenship and, as Hamlet would say, not for country matters. They got married secretly in a civil ceremony (remember he is religious). Joy became ill with cancer and Lewis learned the pain of death and separation that will result if when friend dies. He decided to marry her in a religious ceremony, and they lived together, politely again, as man and wife. Her cancer went in remission, and they had several years of life together,

The play has some humorous moments, like when Joy meets Lewis’s colleagues and when they are getting married in the civil ceremony. Rings? Pause. There are no rings. The platonic friendship continued and the agony of illness and death overwhelm us. Of the many characters that appear, few make a significant impression except perhaps for Lewis’s brother, the decent Major W. H. Lewis (Jeff Rawle).

Hugh Bonneville of Downton Abbey fame plays Lewis with humane and scholarly bearing in a nice contrast to Maggie Siff’s down-to-earth Joy. The two carry the play with wonderful poise that entrances us with laughter and tears.

The set by Peter McKintosh features huge bookshelves at the back and sides of the stage that are largely dark. Director Rachel Kavanaugh prefers spotlights to lighting the entire stage for much of the production. Howard Harrison is the lighting Designer. More lights would have been preferable to reliance on spotlights and darkness.

Shadowlands is a wonderful play about the intellectual life of an Oxford University genius who meets a down-to-earth woman and the unlikeliest of relationships thanks to William Nicholson gives us a marvelous play.
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Shadowlands by William Nicholson continues until May 8, 2026, at the Aldwych Theatre, London, England. https://www.shadowlandsplay.com

James Karas is the Cultured Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto