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BAFTA, Primetime Emmy, and Golden Globe Award-nominated actor Hugh Bonneville stars as C.S. Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia) whose orderly academic life as an Oxford Don is upended by the arrival of the spirited American poet, Joy Davidman. What begins as a meeting of minds becomes an uplifting and powerful journey of love and the fragile beauty of life.
Based on a true story, Shadowlands is written by William Nicholson and was adapted from his own original BAFTA Award-winning TV Movie. It soon became a West End smash-hit winning the Evening Standard Award for Best Play, followed by a triumphant Tony Award-winning Broadway transfer. In 1993 the play was adapted into a major feature film directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, which subsequently won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film.
Rachel Kavanaugh directs this long overdue West End transfer of the sell-out Chichester Festival Theatre production which will play a strictly limited engagement at London’s Aldwych Theatre from 5 February.
‘Tremendous. Bonneville dazzles as CS Lewis in this divine revival’ Guardian
Shadowlands returns to the West End in a deeply moving revival, bringing one of theatre’s most cherished and tragic love stories back to London for a strictly limited run.
Spoilers ahead! At its heart, Shadowlands is a tender, thought-provoking play about love, belief, and what happens when life refuses to follow the rules we’ve carefully written for ourselves.
The story centres on C.S. Lewis — the Oxford academic and writer best known for creating The Chronicles of Narnia. Comfortable in routine and intellect, Lewis’s world is disrupted when he meets Joy Davidman, an American poet whose honesty and warmth challenge everything he thought he understood about faith, pain and love.
What begins as friendship slowly deepens into something far more profound, leading Lewis to confront the very ideas he has spent a lifetime teaching. Shadowlands is ultimately a play about how love can crack even the most carefully armoured hearts.
For the Shadowlands London production, Hugh Bonneville reprises his widely praised performance as C.S. Lewis, having originally starred in the sell-out production at Chichester Festival Theatre. Audiences will know Bonneville from Downton Abbey, where he played the Earl of Grantham, and from the much-loved Paddington films.
He is joined by Maggie Siff (Mad Men, Billions) as Joy Davidman — expect a role that sparkles with humour before quietly breaking your heart!
7 Jan, 2026 | By Hay Brunsdon
Hugh Bonneville is heading back to the West End! The Downton Abbey star will be reprising his critically acclaimed role of C.S. Lewis in Shadowlands when the Chichester Festival Theatre hit transfers to the Aldwych Theatre next year! After a seven year wait, the renowned play will run from 5th February 2026 for a strict 11-week period.
William Nicholson’s play tells the moving love story between Lewis, the Oxford don and creator of The Chronicles of Narnia, and American poet Joy Davidman. It’s a tender, witty and devastating tale of a man of faith whose world is upended by love and grief. At Chichester, audiences and critics were swept away, hailing it “entertaining, funny, deeply touching,” while The Guardian praised Bonneville’s performance as “almost unbearably vivid” in its final scenes.
13 Oct, 2025 | By Sian McBride
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