Delta Center Stage

"Shadowlands"

"Shadowlands" opens Thursday at Bass

"When you pray, you don't change God, you change." -- C.S. Lewis

By LYNN LaFOE ~ Delta Democrat Times

Tim Bixler as C.S. Lewis talks to his stepson Douglas, played by Jamie Dotson, about his mother's death and how the book, "The Magician's Nephew," might help Douglas deal with his grief. (Delta Democrat Times photo by Billy Nash)

Everybody loves a love story and that is just what Delta Center Stage has in store for theater-goers this week. C.S. Lewis' "Shadowlands" opens Thursday at Jake and Freda Stein Hall of E.E. Bass Cultural Arts Center and runs through Sunday.

Curtain time is 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday with a matinee on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Admission is by season ticket, or individual tickets are available at McCormick Book Inn, Wells-Lott Village Pharmacy, and Exceptionale.

Many people are probably more familiar with the movie version of "Shadowlands" which starred Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.According to the director, Mary Frances Maxey, the stage play is the original script upon which the well-known movie was based.
"Shadowlands" is the story, based on fact, of an autumnal romance involving the British writer C. S. Lewis played by Tim Bixler and a brash American divorcee, Joy Gresham, played by Robin Kelly, who later became his wife. The couple met after she wrote him an admiring letter and their 10-year correspondence led to her first visit to England, with her young son Douglas, played by Jamie Dotson.

The era is the 1950s, and Lewis is perfectly happy being an Oxford professor, living with his brother, and sitting in front of the fire listening to classics on the BBC radio service. He is a teacher and a writer, a pipe-smoking bachelor whose children's books, science fiction and pop theology have gained him a following. He gives comforting talks about man's place in God's plans.

Then the most extraordinary thing takes place. When Gresham arrives in England, Lewis receives her as a courtesy, and is so settled in his lifelong professorial routine that he hardly knows what to do when it becomes clear, even to him, that he is in love.
His friendship with the lady poet from American grows far more than he expected. Finally, she asks for a marriage of "convenience" so that she may stay in England. He can handle that. It's only a formality, but he still cannot really figure out his feelings, until she is diagnosed with cancer.

Lewis has been confident in his writings and lectures that he knows the purpose of suffering and pain: It is God's way of perfecting man, of carving away the wrong parts, of leaving a soul ready to enter heaven. But when Joy contracts cancer, when she finds herself in terrible pain, he finds he is not at all sure of his theory. And, facing the possibility that they will be parted, together they create an idea of human life on earth that comforts him more than his theories.

"The play has been viewed in a somewhat controversial light by dedicated C.S. Lewis fans -- of which there are very, very many," said Bixler. "It has been instructive to read many of the comments from his avid followers about this or that minor historical inaccuracy...and there are plenty...but I hope that people will just enjoy the story for what it is intended to be -- a beautifully constructed love story. I certainly don't personally agree with several of the character traits and some of the developments that William Nicholson, the playwright, creates for Lewis, but it is still a very challenging, often funny, and thoroughly thoughtful piece of dramatic writing. I hope that people will come and enjoy it for what it is."

The cast of "Shadowlands" also includes Warren Harper as Warnie; W.D. Pickens as the doctor and Alan Gregg; Thom Ferguson as Professor Christopher Riley; Cal Dotson as the Rev. Harrington, A.J. Correro as the priest and the waiter, Castlen Tindall as the nurse and T. George Kelly as the registrar.

Backstage crew members include Rick Byler, sound; Jason Pettis and Tim Bailey, lights; Castlen Tindall, stage manager with Justin Kelly, Lewis Dotson, A.J. Correro, Sherrie Russell and T. George Kelly in charge of props; Mary Frances Maxey, costumes; and Charlene Louwerens, set design.

For those who have no idea about C. S. Lewis and his work, a little investigation will reveal that he was one of the finest writers of the 20th century. On the other hand, for the many who are already fascinated by Jack (C. S. Lewis' nickname) and his "Narnian Chronicles," or other works, "Shadowlands" will give insight to the man behind the novels.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on Nov. 29, 1898, Clive Staples ("Jack") Lewis was reared in a peculiarly bookish home, one in which the reality he found on the pages of the books within his parents' extensive library seemed as tangible and meaningful to him as anything that transpired outside their doors. As adolescents, Lewis and his older brother, Warren, were more at home in the world of ideas and books of the past, than with the material, technological world of the 20th century.

When the tranquillity and sanctity of the Lewis home was shattered beyond repair by the death of his mother when he was 10, Lewis sought refuge in composing stories and excelling in scholastics. Soon thereafter he became precociously oriented toward the metaphysical and ultimate questions. The rest of his saga and the particulars of his writing career might be seen as the melancholy search for the security he took for granted during the peace and grace of his childhood. By Lewis's testimony, this recovery was to be had only in the "joy" he discovered in an adult conversion to Christianity.

Long-time friend and literary executor of the Lewis estate, Owen Barfield has suggested that there were, in fact, three "C.S. Lewises." That is to say, during his lifetime Lewis fulfilled three very different vocations -- and fulfilled them successfully. There was, first, Lewis the distinguished Oxbridge literary scholar and critic; second, Lewis, the highly acclaimed author of science fiction and children's literature; and thirdly, Lewis, the popular writer and broadcaster of Christian apologetics.

The amazing thing, Barfield notes, is that those who may have known of Lewis in any single role may not have known that he performed in the other two. In a varied and comprehensive writing career, Lewis carved out a sterling reputation as a scholar, a novelist, and a theologian for three very different audiences.

Lewis produced many and varied works in his lifetime between 1919-1961, but perhaps his most notable critical and commercial success, is his seven-volume Chronicles of Narnia, which he published in single volumes from 1950-56. These popular children's fantasies began with the 1950 volume, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," a tale centered around Aslan the lion, a Christ-figure who creates and rules the supernatural land of Narnia, and the improbable adventures of four undaunted British schoolchildren who stumble into Narnia through a clothes closet.

Lewis' writings remain popular and more Lewis volumes -- collections of essays, chiefly -- have appeared after his death than during his lifetime.