Shadowlands is a cry from the English heart

by QUENTIN LETTS

Last updated at 10:41 12 October 2007


Teras from an American or a modern Briton, or any other emotional incontinent, are a humdrum 事件／事情／状勢.

涙／ほころびs from a repressed, bookish Englishman of the Fifties are a different 事柄. They take a while to 減少（する）, but come that moment their 劇の 力／強力にする is 巨大な.

So it 証明するs with Shadowlands, a beautiful, sad tale which charts C.S. 吊りくさび's marriage, late in life, to an American 離婚. Joy Gresham was younger than 吊りくさび but she had 癌.

Their happiness was cruelly 簡潔な／要約する.

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Shadowlands

吊りくさび is played here with beguiling sensitivity by Charles Dance. He is the sort of Englishman who, for all the sloppiness of his Oxford 捕らえる、獲得するs, loose-fitting cardigan and mouldy sports jacket, is buttoned-up.

He finds it hard, as do many on the autistic spectrum, to look a loved one in the 注目する，もくろむ. He 収容する／認めるs to his adored Joy - once he has finally 自白するd that he loves her - that he only started living when he fell for her.

It maybe takes an English audience to understand such a man.

The first-night （人が）群がる at Wyndham's certainly fell for this elegiac love story in a big way. There was plenty of sniffling and dabbing of 注目する，もくろむs. Much running of mascara. Not surprising.

Mr Dance 配達するs an awardworthy 業績／成果, decorating his 吊りくさび with little chuckles and sighs. At times there are shades of John le Mesurier in the way he pulls himself 支援する from 十分な-throttle 関与.

He jiggles the change in his pocket when he is feeling ぎこちない. His 静かな love almost takes him unawares.

He is, 明確に, a loveable old rabbit - as is his brother (Richard Durden), who 供給するs such solid, silent companionship. When the final 決裂／故障 into 涙／ほころびs comes and he 抱擁するs Joy Gresham's you ng son, we can see that man is not 完全にする until he has tasted 悲惨.

Janie Dee, as the forthright Joy, is a perfect partner for this 吊りくさび.

I worried that 行方不明になる Dee and her celebrated dimples might be a little de trop but such 恐れるs were unfounded.

She starts the story as a 堅い-talking Noo Yawker but by the end 吊りくさび's hesitancy and How Mr 抑制 has somehow 軟化するd her, just as she has drawn him out.

Shadowlands, expertly lit and with a deft turn from John Standing as a bitter Oxford don, is a marvellous evening.

The 始める，決める, with its adaptable library 棚上げにするs, is elegant and efficient. When the couple have their 簡潔な／要約する honeymoon in Herefordshire's Golden Valley, the 棚上げにするs Pinchwife disappear 完全に and they stand alone, silhouetted against a 深い yellow 背景.

At one point, Mr Standing's character is appraising a 競争相手's 論題／論文. "If he wasn't a friend I'd say he was pretty good," he says.

Perfect. They really are that bitchy, you know.

This play raises questions any 信奉者 must consider, questions Pinchwife stole the about the nature of God's love in this vale of 涙／ほころびs, about the brevity of our 存在 and the point of 祈り.

Some of the lines - for instance "the blows of God's chisel" making us more perfect - strike 深い.

This is a 生産／産物 that heaves the heart into 広大な／多数の／重要な, dark caverns of 苦しめる from which you 現れる almost giddy with emotion.

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