Appleseed Productions presented Shadowlands as its season’s opener for 2011-12.  Running weekends from September 9 -24, the production starred Thomas Minion as "C.S. Lewis" and Binaifer Dabu as "Joy Gresham."  The production stage manager was Barry Nicholas; the set designer wasNavroz Dabu;  Joe Pierce produced and Sharee Lemos directed.

 

Written by William Nicholson, Shadowlands tells the story of the relationship between noted Christian apologist and author, C.S. Lewis and a (self-described) “Jewish- Communist –Christian- American,”  Joy Davidman Gresham.

 

Shadowlands began as a made-for-BBC movie in 1986 and won the BAFTA Award (British Academy of Film and Television Arts)  for Best Play and Best Actress (Claire Bloom).  Nicholson adapted it for the stage in 1989 and it opened in London that year, winning Best Play in the Evening Standard Awards for 1990.  In October, 1990, the show opened on Broadway, starring Nigel Hawthorne and Jane Alexander; it garnered a Tony Award for Hawthorne for Best Actor and a nomination for Nicholson for Best Play.  In 1993, a  feature film was produced starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.  Oscar nominations went to Nicholson and Winger.

 

 

THE CAST

 

(in order of appearance)

 

C.S. Lewis (Jack)  

Tom Minion

 

Christopher Riley  

David Simmons

 

Rev. Harry Harrington 

Edward Mastin

 

Maurice Oakley/Registrar 

Robert Brophy

 

Alan Gregg/Doctor* 

Donnie Williams

 

Major Warnie Lewis  

Bob Lamson

 

Woman/ Clerk/Nurse  

Pat Stone

 

Joy Davidman Gresham  

Binaifer Dabu

 

Douglas Gresham 

Kai Gesek

 

Priest/Waiter   

Glenn Gesek

 

 

*At the September 11th performance,

the role of “the Doctor” was played

by Robert Brophy.

 

 

"C.S. Lewis" (Tom Minion), Christian apologist and a don of Oxford University, gets to know American "Joy Gresham" (Binaifer Dabu), with whom he has been corresponding for a long time.