The Unlikely, True Love Story of C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman

From the producers of The Screwtape Letters, The Most Reluctant Convert, The Great Divorce and Martin Luther on Trial comes Shadowlands, the unlikely and true love story of renowned Oxford scholar and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis and the much younger Joy Davidman, a divorced Jewish New Yorker, former Communist and Christian convert.

The smart, brash Joy bursts into Lewis’ sedate, middle-aged life and upends it. Lewis is as shocked as anyone to discover that he and Joy have fallen deeply in love – and then almost immediately he must contend with the equally deep pain of losing her when she is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Funny, poignant and insightful, Shadowlands — also an Oscar®-winning film — is a moving portrait of love and loss, faith and doubt, as inspired by Lewis’ own A Grief Observed.

Run Time: 2 hours and 10 minutes; 15 min intermission
(Recommended for ages 13 and older. Children under age 4 not admitted.)

In William Nicholson’s play Shadowlands, Oxford scholar and Christian writer C.S. Lewis (known to his friends as Jack) meets the much younger and much more abrasive Joy Davidman. Joy is a Jewish New Yorker, ex-Communist, and Christian convert; and at first, it seems the two couldn’t be more different. In fact, it’s only when Joy is diagnosed with terminal cancer that Jack realizes how deeply he’s fallen in love with her. We caught up with Robin Abramson, who plays Joy opposite Daniel Gerroll’s Jack in the first New York revival of Shadowlands (directed by Christa Scott-Reed), to talk about the real life Joy Davidman, Shadowlands’ delicate balance of comedy and tragedy, and which C.S. Lewis book is the best. Much like Joy herself, Abramson proved delightful. I know you read up a lot on Joy in preparation for this role. What about her most impressed you? Joy had a photographic memory. At a very young age, she was the kind of person who could read a piece of music over one time, and then put it down and sit at a piano and play it. She was absolutely brilliant. She scored off the charts in IQ tests at a very young age. She also got accepted to Columbia University in the late ’30s, and …Read more