Review: SHADOWLANDS at Aldwych Theatre

Stuart King 14 February, 2026, 18:17

The normally staid life of writer and academic C.S.Lewis is thrown into a state of upheaval after his lengthy and unusually frank correspondence with American Joy Davidman results in a meeting at an Oxford tea room. What initially promises to be a cursory moment shared betwixt writer and fan, quickly transforms into a meeting of minds, mutual admiration and a yearning for a more substantial friendship and even companionship.

Hugh Bonneville as C.S. Lewis, Jeff Rawle as Major W.H. Lewis and Maggie Siff as Joy Davidman in Shadowlands at the Aldwych Theatre. Photo credit Johan Persson

Post-war British starchiness has little defence against the intellectual vigour of a free-thinking American abroad and as news of her husband's infidelity and desire to remarry reaches her, Joy is already mentally and emotionally preparing for a more permanent move to the city of the dreaming spires.

William Nicholson's meticulously researched play SHADOWLANDS first premiered in 1989 and there have been a number of productions on both sides of the Atlantic since, as well as television and cinematic film versions. For the Chichester theatre's revival which has landed at the Aldwych, Hugh Bonneville and Maggie Siff play the unlikely couple who against the odds (and the impenetrably stuffy backdrop of Oxford academia), become husband and wife. While this is no fairytale romance, both actors deliver with light brushstrokes, serving to illuminate their characters' backstories with a playful sensitivity while successfully avoiding any sense of clunking caricature.

Peter McKintosh's traditional set is of tall bookshelves ranged either side of the stage and a central revolve on which various armchairs and pieces of furniture come and go curtesy of choreographed cast members. Upstage centre, the bookcase shows a void which is periodically illuminated, symbolic of the fantasy lands from the author's novels, specifically The Magician's Nephew with its magical tree and shining silver apple. As Joy nears death from bone cancer, her son Douglas (Ayrton English on press night) retrieves the apple and prays at his mother's bedside.

Gently directed by Rachel Kavanaugh the strong supporting cast includes Jeff Rawle as Maj Warnie Lewis (brother to C.S.) with whom he has shared a home for twenty-five years, and an assortment of Oxford Dons who regularly convene to drink port and banter on matters theological and liturgical. Among the latter, as Professor Christopher Riley, Timothy Watson extracts the most juice from his sardonic lines, but his condescension proves unwise and he quickly realises he has met his match in the blunt and unambiguous ripostes of Siff's Joy.

SHADOWLANDS plays 2 hours and 20 mins including interval and continues at the Aldwych until 9th May.

Shadowlands Tickets