Shadowlands is a play by William Nicholson , first shown as a television play in 1985, starring Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom. The story is a fictionalized account of part of the life of writer C. S. Lewis.

The story follows Lewis as he meets an American fan, Joy Gresham, whom he befriends and eventually marries. The story also deals with his struggle with issues of personal pain and grief, as Joy becomes afflicted with cancer and eventually dies. Lewis finds that the simple answers he had preached no longer apply when it is his own loved one who is suffering.

The play was first performed on stage in the West End in 1990. Lewis was played on stage by Nigel Hawthorne, who successfully took the role to Broadway, and Joy was played by Jane Lapotaire .

A film version was released by Spelling International in 1993; the screenplay was written by Nicholson , adapting his own play, and it was directed by Richard Attenborough. Lewis was played by Anthony Hopkins and Joy by Debra Winger.

The film has many factual inaccuracies. They include:

• Joy Gresham had two sons, David and Douglas, and not one as portrayed.
• C. S. Lewis could not drive.
• The film covers events between 1952-1960 and show C. S. Lewis teaching at Magdalen College, Oxford, but by 1955 he had moved to Magdalene College, Cambridge.
• Joy Gresham broke her leg when answering a telephone call from Kathleen Farrer in her home in Oxford. In the film she breaks her leg answering a call from C. S. Lewis in her house in London.
• Joy Gresham was treated in hospital in Oxford, not in London.

Famous quotes

Why love if losing hurts so much? I have no answers any more. Only the life I have lived. Twice in that life I've been given the choice; as a boy and as a man. The boy chose safety, man chooses suffering. The pain now is part of the happiness then. That's the deal.

External link

• IMDb profile of the film

The play should not be confused with Shadowland, a horror novel by Peter Straub.

Shadowland (singular) is the name of a British progressive rock band of the early 1990s: see Shadowland (band).