As part of our Surrey in Edinburgh series we sent one of our most experienced theatre reviewers up to the Fringe to see what's going on. An Evening with C.S. Lewis + Of Wardrobes and Rings both proved a delight for Amanda Hodges in this 5 STAR review
An evening with CS Lewis
Narnia author C.S. Lewis died on 22 November 1963, the same day as President Kennedy so the newspaper coverage was obviously dominated by JFK’s assassination. For such a private man as Lewis this would probably have been more posthumously gratifying than frustrating, but unravelling the threads of Lewis’ life is an interesting task nonetheless and one delivered with consummate panache by David Payne in his superb one-man show.
Sitting comfily ensconced in an armchair in what’s meant to be his home in Oxford, Lewis, always known as Jack, regales the audience (ostensibly transformed into a gaggle of visiting American academics) to an hour’s retrospective on his life to date. Beginning with the idyllic Belfast childhood blighted by the sudden death of his mother and his subsequent endurance of boarding school Lewis introduces us to the seeds of the creativity that would later find expression in the Chronicles of Narnia. Early atheism gives way to strong Christian faith and a satisfying life as an Oxford academic before the unexpected arrival of Joy, his American penpal, brings late-flowering love into his life.
Payne is so persuasive as Lewis that although the action is necessarily static (the imminent arrival of Warnie, Lewis’ beloved brother, briefly giving dramatic pause) attention doesn’t falter for a minute. Lewis was a celebrated speaker, known for his warmth and wit as well as his breadth of knowledge and Payne conveys the man’s humanity with the right blend of understated and wry British humour; this is a man who shrunk from overt egoism; he here memorably defines the ego as an impulse, to ‘embellish, garnish and overstate,’ and eschews anything of this ilk.
The love that consumes his later years is recounted with palpable poignancy and the grief that briefly eclipsed his faith given due acknowledgement, as is his way back to belief, Lewis being one of the great Christian apologists whose books like The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity are now classics of the genre. At the end of the hour one really feels that you’ve been in Lewis’ congenial company and it’s an unmitigated pleasure.
As a companion piece, the company’s other Festival offering perfectly complements the Lewis monologue, recounting the last meeting of Lewis with his old friend, author J R R Tolkien, (or ‘Tollers’ as he’s affectionately called), revisited in Of Wardrobes and Rings. The two men often met for a chat over matters personal and literary in the Eagle and Child pub in Oxford and it’s here that Tolkien first read the early drafts of Middle-Earth to Jack over a convivial pint.
As the play opens Lewis is recovering from a recent heart attack and so tea rather than alcohol is his tipple of choice but little else has changed. Longstanding friends, they’ve nonetheless been estranged at times but the solid foundation of their mutual affection brings them back together on this occasion, two giants of a genre, one responsible for the immortal Narnia, the other The Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien’s voice shapes the drama, he addresses the audience directly early on and again at the play’s close. David Robinson is first-class as the Catholic writer whose strict principles have seen him take exception to Lewis’ marriage to a divorcee, and David Payne reprises his role as Lewis, both actors are wonderful, capturing all the nuances of an exceptionally close friendship.
Meg Ellisor as vivacious American barmaid Hattie brings some light relief to the drama but the focus is firmly on the enduring bond between these two extraordinary men. When Tolkien wistfully describes the passage of time bringing the inevitable demise of friends as feeling like leaves falling from a tree but the loss of Lewis being tantamount to being felled by an axe to the roots, the emotional veracity of the moment lingers long in the memory.
Tickets: edfringe.com. Box Office 0131 6186967
An Evening with C.S.Lewis is also on at All Hallows church, Twickenham on 24 September 2016. For tickets visit http://bigchurchlive.com/events
Check out another one of our Surrey in Edinburgh reviews by clicking here
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