Shadowlands review: Hugh Bonneville is exquisite as C.S. Lewis
Published on 13 February 2026
Originally a 1985 television film, later reworked into a 1989 stage play, and perhaps most famously adapted into the 1993 film starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, William Nicholson’s tender exploration of love, faith and grief has long resonated with audiences. This latest production, directed by Rachel Kavanaugh, further cements C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidson's bittersweet tale of love and friendship as a heartwrenching modern classic. It’s warm, well-rounded and quietly devastating.
No stranger to period drama, Hugh Bonneville is exquisite as C.S. Lewis (as he was when he first took on the role back in 2019 at the Chichester Festival Theatre). Lewis, a world-famous writer who can conjure mythical lands and talking lions with ease, struggles to imagine happiness for himself - until he meets American poet Joy Davidman (Maggie Siff). Bonneville is charming, funny, and lovably awkward as the Chronicles of Narnia author. He’s compelling to watch, and our hearts break when we watch this man, who still kneels by his bed for nightly prayers like a child, admit to Joy, “I started living when I started loving you, that makes me just a few months old.” It’s poignant and powerful.
Joy is straight-talking and forthright, and is the catalyst that draws Lewis out of himself. Whereas the reserved academics in Oxford hide behind crude comparisons and overdrawn observations to hide less than respectable views, she is self-assured, and doesn’t suffer the Oxford Dons covert digs and condescending banter “Are you being rude, or merely stupid?” she asks them, C.S. Lewis quips back “Oh, he has an open mind, he just can’t keep anything in it for long”
Unsurprisingly for a pair of published writers, Davidman and Lewis have some great lines “England is cold and dull, and I don’t much care for the weather either” but its their silences and stumbles, when they drop the clever wordplay and speak from the heart, when they finally acknowledge that they are indeed ‘very’ fond of each other, that the play really shines. It’s a testament to love, the all-encompassing joy of diving into it fearlessly and fully - even when you know that it can’t last forever.
And unfortunately, like the pages of their world-famous works, their days are numbered. Davidman is diagnosed with a terminal illness, and Lewis keeps skipping to the end of their story. He’s terrified of how he will continue in the epilogue, how he’s going to live through the many chapters and sequels that won’t involve her, “After we have suffered so much, must we still suffer more…I don’t want to lose you” she encourages him to live in the now, to enjoy the brief moments they have together, and to see her how she is “Here I am, present tense”.
Peter McKintosh’s understated design mixes the mundane with the magical. A giant, wood-panelled bookcase dominates the back of the stage, occasionally opening to offer fleeting glimpses of Lewis’ most famous stories; a snowcovered forest, a glowing golden apple growing on a branch, all the while an ever-present lamppost glows quietly at the side. It’s a simple and effective way of highlighting the stark contrast between Lewis’ fantastical and whimsical works of fiction and the reality of his present.
Shadowlands is ultimately a testament to love in its purest form: fearless, fleeting, and transformative. This is a quietly magical, deeply human production that reminds us how extraordinary it can be to love fully, even when we know it cannot last forever. It’s an incredible piece of theatre, without a shadow of a doubt.
Shadowlands plays at the Aldwych Theatre until 9 May 2026.
