These heart-rending questions of faith, tragedy and perseverance should feel familiar by now.
The Denver Center Theatre Company’s production of William Nicholson’s drama “Shadowlands” comes less than six months after a run of the same show at the Vintage Theatre in Aurora. The structure and story haven’t changed. The relationship between British author and theolgian C.S. Lewis and American poet Joy Davidman in the 1950s is still the central focus here. Nicholson follows the pair’s meeting, their friendship and the slow budding of a romance in trying circumstances. When Davidman falls ill and ultimately succumbs to bone cancer, Lewis’ spiritual crisis becomes the dramatic centerpiece.
As it did six months ago, the drama unflinchingly mines themes of love, loss and grief.
It’s a wonder then, that the DCTC production feels so fresh and vital. Director Christy Montour-Larson and a high-caliber cast offer a remarkable degree of urgency and pathos. The drama’s stark, somber themes come through in a minimalistic design by Lisa Orzolek. “Shadowlands,” one of the final productions of the DCTC’s 2013-14 season, opts for subtlety and raw emotion over glitzy effects and fancy stagings. From the springboard of a single couple’s struggle with mortality and loss, the show drills down to universal questions about the nature of human suffering.
It’s an achievement that comes in large part from the insight and beauty of Lewis’ own writings, but this production finds the constant soul of a show that offers plenty of challenges.
The story stays on course largely thanks to the skill of the principal cast. New York import Graeme Malcolm makes a brilliant DCTC debut as Lewis. From the drama’s opening lines — a fragment of an Oxford lecture delivered by Lewis — Malcolm embodies the central questions of the show in an understated and endearing fashion. Those first scholarly musings about the nature of human suffering find weight and immediacy with the action that plays out in the following three hours.
Human suffering is a “megaphone to rouse a deaf world,” Lewis insists; “God loves us, so he gives us the gift of suffering,” he adds before commenting on the transitory nature of this life, a mere “shadowlands” that’s only a pale glint of what’s to come in the next life.
That’s all fine in theological theory, but the production invests Lewis’ eloquence with consequence. As Davidman, the American who sparks a friendship with Lewis via letters, DCTC vet Kathleen McCall is properly strong and spunky. As Davidman’s marriage in the U.S. disentegrates, both Malcolm and McCall approach the deepening relationship with the proper amount of caution. Both offer a convincing transformation when the cancer strikes.
The couple’s evolving bond may be the through line of the drama, but the production comes together thanks to the satellite elements so well portrayed by the ensemble. As Lewis’ brother and housemate Warnie, John Hutton is quixotic and quirky. Dialogue between the Lewis brothers that could very easily come off as labored and stuffy from the wrong actors flows smoothly here.
The same element of seamless marks Sam Gregory’s delivery as Christopher Riley, one of Lewis’ scholarly colleagues at Oxford. Riley’s philosophical battles with Lewis and Davidman become one of the unlikely highlights here. Through consummate skill at back-and-forth argument, these heady debates become one of the high points of the show.
The rest of the ensemble featuring Denver theater vets John Arp, Stephanie Cozart, Douglas Harmsen and young Charlie Korman as Davidman’s son Douglas also add to the impressive fluidity in this show.
Still, the key to the success is the trials of Lewis and Davidman. The relationship sums up all of the pitfalls that accompany human love. Permanence is impossible. Loss is inevitable. Suffering is the unavoidable cost of building human connections.
That stark message may be as old as human existence, but it finds a depth in this show that’s affecting. For any one who’s seen a loved one battle illness, for any one whose faith has wobbled in the face of tragedy, the story of Lewis and Davidman holds the promise of valuable insight.
Montour-Larson and the cast tap in to that potential. The result is an old story that breathes with new life and insight.
THREE AND A HALF STARS OUT OF FOUR
“Shadowlands” runs until April 27 at the Space Theatre at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 1101 13th St. in Denver. Tickets start at $47. Information: 303-893-4100 or denvercenter.org.
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at 720-449-9707 or agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com