Shadowlands Review

A full house thoroughly enjoyed - and in some cases wept along with - the Repertory Society's production of Shadowlands, which opened on Wednesday the 18th May at the Playhouse Theatre. The play presents the period in the life of the writer, C S Lewis, when, after many years of bachelorhood (and somewhat to his surprise), he fell in love with an American poet, Joy Gresham, and then had to suffer the pain of losing her to cancer within a few short years.

Natalie Ellis' direction of this often complex play, which not only shifts moods quickly, but also requires a number of shifts of scene, was excellent, and shows the value of long years of experience in the theatre.

Phil Cole and Denise Casey play C S (Jack) Lewis and Joy Gresham respectively, and both bring great subtlety to their demanding roles. The other major part, that of Major Lewis, Jack's brother, was played by Bert Nisbet with humour and warmth.

In the minor roles - and also acting as stagehands - were Bernie Crayston as the pompous Riley and Mike Crowl as the shallow Rev Harrington. Greg Brook played various small roles with aplomb while Andrew Cook and Rosemary Richards (also working backstage) appeared briefly as a doctor and a nurse.

Two boys, Andrew Hughes and Alexander Byars, share the role of Douglas, Joy Gresham's young son, and bring innocence and struggle in the face of death to their roles. Eli Gray-Smith presents piano music that evokes the 1950s and ably covers the changes of scene.

The production runs until Wednesday the 25th, with a matinee on Sunday the 22nd.

Old Stagers

Before When We Are Married began, the ODT published a piece called Old stagers still playing up after 75 years. It discusses the Dunedin Repertory Society in the light of their 75th Anniversary. (The Anniversary was the reason When We Are Married was being staged - again. It's always been a popular and successful play with the company, and proved to be so again.)

The article has a few errors in it: for one thing, as far as I can remember, I've never performed for the Repertory Society before, although the article includes my name amongst a bunch of people who have. And the photograph that accompanies it claims to show a Repertory production, but apparently it isn't. (Don't ask me what the production actually is; there's some debate about it. )

Natalie Ellis, who was interviewed for the article told the cast there were some other miscrepancies, but didn't expand on them further.

Anyway, it took up a full page in the ODT, and that's always good for publicity!