Shadowlands Tickets

As Shadowlands arrives in the West End, audiences are being invited not just into a beautiful love story, but into the real life of C.S. Lewis — the mind behind The Chronicles of Narnia. The Shadowlands play explores the emotional awakening of Lewis through his relationship with Joy Davidman, revealing the man behind the imagination: an Oxford academic whose carefully ordered world is quietly, and profoundly, reshaped by love.

Here are five lesser-known facts about Lewis that add extra depth to the experience of watching Shadowlands, starring Hugh Bonneville, at the Aldwych Theatre in London.

1. He Didn’t Always Believe in God

Although Lewis is now famous for his Christian writing, he spent much of his early life as an atheist. His return to faith came slowly, influenced by friends at Oxford — including J.R.R. Tolkien. In Shadowlands, this intellectual certainty is tested again, this time by love and real human connection, making his personal journey just as central as his philosophical one.

2. He Was Part of a Legendary Literary Circle

Lewis wasn’t working in isolation. He was a core member of the Inklings, an informal group of writers and academics that included Tolkien, the creator of The Lord of the Rings. They famously met in Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College, Oxford, and at the Eagle and Child pub to read aloud and critique each other’s work. Knowing this adds another layer to the reserved academic you meet in Shadowlands West End — a man surrounded by some of the greatest storytelling minds of the 20th century.

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.

What Is the Shadowlands Play About?

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.

Shadowlands London: Hugh Bonneville Stars as C.S. Lewis

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!

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.