Discovering a play about CW Lewis and JRR Tolkien at the Museum of the Bible, I couldn’t wait to tell my husband.
Furthermore, there was also a CS Lewis exhibit at the museum that I’ve been wanting to visit.
Excitedly, we purchased the tickets and arrived on a late autumnal afternoon, with leaves crunching under our footsteps for a full day with CS Lewis on the anniversary of his death (and JFK’s) November 22.
(photos from the exhibit are scattered throughout the post below)
AMAZING STAGE SET OF EAGLE AND CHILD PUB IN OXFORD
Entering the intimate theater, I was impressed with the stage design, which made me feel as though I was in Oxford at the Eagle and Child pub, a tavern that Lewis, Tolkien, and their Inklings’ circle famously frequented.
Not knowing how accurate it might be, I asked my husband, who used to live in England.
Although he had never been to the Eagle and Child, he has visited other English taverns.
He dubbed the set as smashing!
While waiting, I thought through some of Lewis’ books I have read and movies I have seen.
All of that read me to read a book and watch two different movies his marriage to an American, who many have described as “a piece of work.”
In short, she aggressively sought CS Lewis’s affections with her two sons in tow, while she was married to another man…in the 1950s.
JOY DAVIDMAN GRESHAM FIRST MEETS CS LEWIS
Apparently, her initial letter to Lewis in 1950 openly revealed her diverse resume: Jewish, former Communist, former atheist, current Christian, married, highly vocal, author.
It’s been said that friends and acquaintances described her as abrasive, manipulative, and arrogant.
Of the books and movies about her I’ve seen, and of her writings I’ve read, she’s a bit beyond description.
In 1952, when Joy made a solo trip to England to meet CS Lewis in person, she took a bus to the Eagle and Pub, audaciously walking in to meet Lewis and his Inkling friends. {gasp}
WHO ARE THE INKLINGS?
I presume she wanted to be part of the Inklings, and Dorothy Sayers had once been considered, but this was a man’s club…not to be rude.
Instead, they did not want to be distracted by the fairer persuasion when their chief goal was to read their drafts.
During their most active years, the Inklings met at least twice weekly, usually Thursday evenings in Lewis’ second floor rooms at Magdelen College, and Tuesday mornings at The Eagle and Child aka Bird and Baby.
Committedly, they read their working manuscripts out loud for the others to assess, then annotated compliments, rebuttals, and suggestions for improvement…strengthening their work.
Out of this commitment and openness came many publications, including Lewis’ Narnia books and Tolkiens’ The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
LEWIS AND JOY BECOME FRIENDS
During this time Joy took Lewis aside, requesting that he proof her book on the Ten Commandments, in which she took liberties with her commentary.
Meanwhile, Lewis’ brother, Warren Lewis, wrote his observations of Lewis and Joy: a rapid friendship….
Apparently Lewis initially grew close because Joy was not afraid of verbal sparring.
As to a description of Joy, Warren Lewis ultimately wrote: a Christian convert of Jewish race, medium height, good figure, horn rimmed specs, quite extraordinarily uninhibited.
After receiving a letter that her husband was having an affair with her cousin, she returned to America to try to rescue her marriage.
After an abusive attack, she agreed to a divorce.
JOY SEEKS MARRIAGE
In 1953, Joy settled in England with her boys.
Hoping to marry Lewis, Joy had to settle for friendship, even after her divorce was finalized in 1954.
However, when she faced deportment from England in 1956, Lewis suggested they secretly wed…then retire to their separate homes, maintaining their relationship on a friendship only basis.
JOY STRICKEN WITH CANCER
A few months later, Joy was admitted to the hospital, unable to stand because cancer had destroyed her hip bones.
Suddenly, Lewis realized he was in love with this beguiling American with whom he oft enjoyed verbal sparring.
Since she was divorced, Lewis pulled a few strings from a reluctant friend, so he and Joy could have a religious wedding.
At her hospital bedside in 1957, Lewis wed Joy in the eyes of God…and this time they let their friends and colleagues know about it.
Soon after, Joy was amazingly healed, so that she was able to walk again…but only for a season.
In 1960, she passed away.
Meanwhile, CS Lewis and his Inkling friends, who were concerned about his relationship with the American divorcee, had fallen away over the last several years for various reasons.
WHAT MIGHT LEWIS AND TOLKIEN SAY IN 1963?
Hence this play, set on an autumnal day in October 1963, portraying an imagined meeting between CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien, fellow Inkling and friend, who led CS Lewis to Christ in 1931.
(There is no record of Lewis and Tolkien ever having met after Joy’s death.)
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE INKLINGS
Having read several fascinating books about the Inklings, especially Lewis and Tolkien, I was so excited to see the Lewis and Tolkien characters interact on stage.
When they first met at Oxford, they and the Inklings connected over their shared history of WWI trench warfare experience and aversion to modernization.
Lewis and Tolkien, especially, connected over their love of Norse mythology from childhood.
Wanting to create a national fairy tale for England, they pursued their dream by reading their drafts to the Inklings.
From that inner circle, Lewis created The Chronicles of Narnia, while Tolkien created The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Before those books were published, Lewis came to know Christ in 1931 because of Tolkien’s witness.
Although they did not agree on everything, they were good friends until a falling away began during the 1940s.
BREAKING OF THE FELLOWSHIP
During that time a new Inkling arrived, Charles Williams, who greatly dabbled in the occult, incorporating these leanings into some of his writings, which Lewis often reviewed.
Concerned, Tolkien watched his friend, Lewis, who had once been part of the occult, draw close in friendship to Williams.
Then Lewis met Joy Davidson Gresham.
Fearing she was using Lewis, the Inklings were quite concerned.
Apparently Lewis himself was concerned, since he at first refused to marry her, then married her secretly in name only, before falling for her when he discovered she was dying of cancer.
While possibly not being honest (at some point of the relationship) as to his true feelings, Lewis must have understood his friends’ concerns.
Yet, finally submitting to love for her, Lewis might have understood the concern his friends felt.
ANGER THEME OF PLAY
Thus…I awaited the play to see how this depth of story and drama would be drawn out.
In short, I wasn’t convinced by the production.
Principally, the anger that Lewis spewed on stage seemed out of character for him, considering his deep faith many have learned about through his writings, BBC broadcasts, and facing eternity with Joy.
Instead the steady stream of anger, even rage, seemed purposely written into the script to satisfy a postmodern audience for dramatic effect.
BEAUTY OF THE PLAY
Actually my favorite part of the play was how Tolkien suddenly sparked my imagination.
I have never read any of his books because they seemed too brutish for me…having been sullied by seeing eerie snippets of the movie version everytime I walked by a television store display.
Only one other character was in this play, a waitress, who became the bridge between the two great minds from Oxford.
Not recognizing them, she asked them lots of questions.
Lewis and Tolkien introduced each other to her, derisively describing the other’s famous works with scorn, trying to belittle the other. (again, which felt out of character)
Oh, she knew the Narnia books, though she had not read The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings….which caused Lewis to snigger.
After all Lewis could crank out about a book a year, but Tolkien’s perfection takes longer.
For instance, Tolkien’s Lord of the Ring series took 17 years to write.
Like me, she couldn’t work up her interest in the latter two books.
However, we learn later that after her meeting with Lewis and Tolkien, she walked to the local bookstore to purchase Tolkien’s classics to read.
She was gobsmacked!
Apparently, so are a few generations throughout the rest of the world.
While Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, and Tolkien’s The Hobbit continue to be massively popular, it’s Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings that have exploded, topping the charts!
Let me just say, I, too, am gobsmacked, having started The Hobbit the night before I saw the play.
I have fallen in love with that adorable creature, which no movie can properly represent.
Pardon me, dear reader, for I have a longing to return to my book to see how The Hobbit and the dwarfs fare.
I suspect that ultimately, a beautiful fellowship will develop…
Stay tuned!
EPILOGUE
Before New Year’s Eve I finished reading all of The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.
While all are amazing, I totally get why Tolkien took his time with his books.
Tolkien’s books are a work of art, masterfully crafted.
Meanwhile, the Narnia books are appropriately lighter, with their own level of depth, as appropriate for kids, yet good for adults to read, too.
Wish I had read all these before our homeschool days.
I would have assigned the Narnia books for our Dialectic studies and the The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for Rhetoric Studies, when we studied the 20th century.
More on my thoughts on these wonderful books in a later post.
For more photos from the CS Lewis exhibit, which we saw after the program, check my Flickr set.
