Theater : Lewis-Grisham Love Tale Is Alive in ‘Shadowlands’

The biggest danger that faces any production of William Nicholson’s “Shadowlands,� receiving its California premiere at South Coast Repertory, is of being dismissed as a disease-of-the-month play.

It’s an impression a bad production can create. But South Coast Rep, which has had a largely distinguished 1992-93 season, caps it with a graceful and pointed version of this real-life love story--a story that extends beyond the confines of romance into deeper and more intriguing religious dialectic.

Within it, the self-described American “Jewish Communist Christian� poet Joy Davidman Gresham searches out writer and propounder of Christian doctrine C. S. Lewis in Oxford as a fan. She has not planned to disrupt the life of academic tranquillity that he shares with his brother, Warnie, let alone force Lewis to throw every belief he ever held dear into question.

Gresham, whose effect on Lewis became the focus of his book, “Surprised by Joy,� had the bad manners and good taste to startle him intellectually. This provoked Lewis into falling in love with her--a new experience and a love he fully confronted only when Gresham was stricken with cancer far too soon in their late-blooming relationship.

Nicholson’s stage adaptation of this unusual pairing takes a few harmless and acknowledged liberties with fact. And it places its emphasis not on Gresham’s illness and its emotional consequence, but on what love and pain did to the 50-year-old Lewis’ fundamental beliefs. To achieve this takes considerably more wit and skill, and it is not surprising that the play is framed by a lecture Lewis is giving on love, pain and suffering as instruments of Divine enlightenment.

All this may sound a bit daunting, but it’s not. Nicholson offers Lewis’ intricate argument, enlisting our attention if not necessarily agreement. His Joy Gresham is an impulsive, quick-witted creature full of a very American sense of humor and self-deprecation. “I’m a Jew, divorced, broke and I’m dying of cancer,� she states, upon finding out her affliction. “Do I get a discount?� At South Coast, the ever-surprising Kandis Chappell gives a blunt and inspired performance. Her directness and deliberate plain Jane look makes the character’s sinew and bite all the more vivid.

No less subtle is the idiosyncratic portrayal of the complex C. S. Lewis by Dakin Matthews. His Jack--as Lewis was known to family and friends--is a dusty Oxfordian, as rigidly encrusted in his bachelorhood as he is in his old tweeds. (Costume designer Ann Bruice can take credit for both Matthews’ worn British look and Chappell’s ultra-sensible outfits.) Romantic love was the farthest thing from his mind when he agreed to meet Gresham and her son, Douglas (Morgan Johnston), for tea. And Matthews is as good at persuading us of Lewis’ determination to deny the emotions Gresham stirs up in him as he is at Lewis’ eventual capitulation. It’s a richly textured performance, full of detail.

Except for Jack Sydow’s compassionate brother Warnie and Johnston’s docile Douglas, the balance of the company is supportive but peripheral. Hal Landon Jr., Art Koustik, Don Took and Mary Kay Wulf fill in nicely in a variety of small roles. And Richard Doyle has some choice acerbic moments as a professor who takes a few potshots at Gresham only to discover that she gives as good as she gets.

Paulie Jenkins’ lighting design and John Iacovelli’s sets court plainness, except for the Lewis brothers’ book-crammed living room and the filmy fantasyland of Niarna, the magic universe of Lewis’ celebrated children’s stories visited twice by the suggestible Douglas.

But beyond the physical setting and performances lies the fine hand of director Martin Benson who has carefully chosen what to put into sharp relief and what to leave alone. “Shadowlands� is a play that must be heard as well as seen. It requires listening. By selectively pressing buttons, Benson has delivered a production full of the right values. It seems to gratify the actors’ skill at making subtle choices and, above all, it honors a feeling and cogitative text.

“Shadowlands,� South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sundays 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Ends June 27. $25-$34; (714) 957-4033. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.

Dakin Matthews C.S. Lewis

Kandis Chappell Joy Davidman Gresham

Jack Sydow Warnie Lewis

Richard Doyle Christopher Riley

Don Took Harry Harrington

Morgan Johnston Douglas

Hal Landon Jr. Alan Gregg/Doctor

Mary Kay Wulf Registrar/Nurse/Ensemble

Art Koustik Dr.Oakley/Priest/Waiter

Director Martin Benson. Playwright William Nicholson. Sets John Iacovelli. Lights Paulie Jenkins. Costumes Ann Bruice. Music, sound Michael Roth. Production manager Edward Lapine. Stage manager Bonnie Lorenger. Asst. stage manager Scott Harrison.