Hugh Bonneville plays childrens author C.S. Lewis in Shadowlands, a funny and thought provoking play which is a joy to watch
Originally produced by Chichester Festival Theatre in 2019, William Nicholson’s 1989 play SHADOWLANDS (adapted from his own original BAFTA Award-winning TV Movie) directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, is now open and I went along to check it out.
Knowing nothing about the play or indeed the life of C.S. Lewis (apart from the fact he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia), I went in blind with an open mind and left with a warm heart on a freezing cold February night.
Based on a true story, Joy Davidman, played by Maggie Siff (Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, Billions) corresponds with C.S. Lewis through fan mail, before eventually meeting for tea with her eight-year-old son, Douglas. They are fans of his stories and Joy clings on to the hope in the books to save her marriage, before realising she is, in fact, in love with Lewis – played by Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey, Paddington, W1A).
Agreeing to a transactional marriage so she can stay in the country, the couple have an interesting friendship that is tested to the limit. Shadowlands explores the idea of God, love and humanity and is a journey of self discovery for the author, who was much more comfortable putting his emotions on the page, than acknowledging them in person. But there is a ticking time clock for the Oxford professor and he needs to delve deep into his soul before it is too late.
Religion is a key factor in this story, with Lewis being a devout christian (with his most beloved novel The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe actually being a religious story). When the church refuses to marry the couple because they do not recognise Joy’s divorce from her previous husband, Lewis very cleverly finds a loop hole, which is both funny and thought provoking.
A trip to the theatre can be a game of luck
These old, creaky, West End venues were not designed for the evolution of humanity and no matter how much you pay for your ticket, you never know who will be sitting in front of you. Unfortunately for me, at this performance, a very tall man with a penchant for leaning to one side, obstructed my view for the majority of the performance, meaning I missed a lot of the action taking place on stage.
Everyone has the right to enjoy the theatre as comfortably as they can but if you are one of those people who has no regard for how your positioning may affect the view for the person behind you, be that by leaning to one side or leaning forward, please sit back in your chair and look straight ahead out of common courtesy. Mix this in with the man to the left of me snoring and the person on the right painstakingly opening and closing the zip on their bag and fumbling around for items, made for a rather unpleasant evening.
The set design, whilst not particularly exciting for the most part, does have one beautiful moment where the library shelves part, allowing Douglas to enter some kind of Narnia (the famous land in his novel The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe).
Hugh Bonneville is such a warm and loveable actor whose presence on stage makes you feel immediately warm and fuzzy and so his performance was a joy to watch (what I could see of it). Maggie Siff plays the role of bunny-boiler literary fan, Joy Davidman, sweetly, making it easier to accept what is quite a bizarre story about a man effectively letting an obsessed fan live with and marry him.
One thing that is different to the original story is that Joy Davidman had two sons with her first husband but only one is included in the play. Had the additional child been included, it may have been more obvious, the similarities between Lewis’s own life of having a mother die when young and being left with just his brother, Warnie, played comically by Jeff Rawle.
Shadowlands is a very moving and sad story, beautifully put together and one which left me with thoughts on life and mortality, that have been whirling around in my head since.
★★★★
West End Wilma
Shadowlands is playing at London’s Aldwych Theatre until Saturday 9 May 2026.
The Cast
Hugh Bonneville – C.S. Lewis
Maggie Siff – Joy Davidman
Jeff Rawle – Major W.H. Lewis (Warnie),
Tony Jayawardena – Rev. Harry Harrington
Timothy Watson – Professor Christopher Riley
Rebecca Blackstone
Nigel Fyfe
Jemma Geanaus
Sharan Phull
Leighton Pugh
Fode Simbo
Ernest Stroud
Giles Taylor.
Ayrton English – Douglas
Nathan Jago – Douglas
Louis Wilkins – Douglas
The Creative Team
Written by William Nicholson
Directed by Rachel Kavanaugh
Designed by Peter McKintosh
Lighting Design by Howard Harrison
Sound Designs by Fergus O’Hare
Casting by Annelie Powell CDG and Jim Carnahan.
