An Evening with CS Lewis
Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 11:36 am
This isn't exactly a Narnia show, but I think it can fit in here. I know a couple of you have seen performances of "An Evening with CS Lewis" and Swan wrote a review of it (which she hopefully still has a copy of and can be put up on the new site). Well he finally decided to bring his show to the UK and I got to see a performance of it on Saturday at the Kilns.
It's a one-man show in which David Payne pretends to be CS Lewis talking to a group of American authors in the final years of his life. He basically tells them his life story. Usually he does the performance for large crowds in theatres and the like but this was in the library of the Kilns which could only fit in 20 people (he did 5 performances in total throughout the week). It was very good, although you could tell that it was written with an American audience in mind (he made a joke about iced tea) and that he probably was less used to such an intimate setting (sometimes he came across as a little too theatrical, which I could see as coming across fine on a stage, but made it less convincing as he sat on that chair in the library not far in front of a small group). I tried to imagine he really was Lewis and couldn't quite convince myself. I think he also missed a few opportunities to make use of the fact that he was really in Oxford, in Lewis' house. For example he would refer to Headington (the town/suburb of Oxford where the Kilns is) as "the village" rather than just "here", and when he referred to the first house Joy lived in he could have said "just down the road" and pointed in the direction where it was. But in all it was a great performance and a privilege to be there (he didn't even charge for it, but asked for voluntary donations to go towards the running of the Kilns centre). I had the opportunity to greet and thank him afterwards. I also met two old ladies who were at the show, one of whom said she was at Oxford 60 years ago and used to attend some of Lewis' lectures. The second lady (who it turned out was a Classicist, and like me, prefers Greek over Latin) had been to some of his lectures in Cambridge when she was training to be a teacher there. Apparently earlier in the week, a man had come to a performance who was a childhood friend of Douglas Gresham and used to play in the woods by the Kilns with him.
Has any one else seen the show? If so, please share your experiences.
It's a one-man show in which David Payne pretends to be CS Lewis talking to a group of American authors in the final years of his life. He basically tells them his life story. Usually he does the performance for large crowds in theatres and the like but this was in the library of the Kilns which could only fit in 20 people (he did 5 performances in total throughout the week). It was very good, although you could tell that it was written with an American audience in mind (he made a joke about iced tea) and that he probably was less used to such an intimate setting (sometimes he came across as a little too theatrical, which I could see as coming across fine on a stage, but made it less convincing as he sat on that chair in the library not far in front of a small group). I tried to imagine he really was Lewis and couldn't quite convince myself. I think he also missed a few opportunities to make use of the fact that he was really in Oxford, in Lewis' house. For example he would refer to Headington (the town/suburb of Oxford where the Kilns is) as "the village" rather than just "here", and when he referred to the first house Joy lived in he could have said "just down the road" and pointed in the direction where it was. But in all it was a great performance and a privilege to be there (he didn't even charge for it, but asked for voluntary donations to go towards the running of the Kilns centre). I had the opportunity to greet and thank him afterwards. I also met two old ladies who were at the show, one of whom said she was at Oxford 60 years ago and used to attend some of Lewis' lectures. The second lady (who it turned out was a Classicist, and like me, prefers Greek over Latin) had been to some of his lectures in Cambridge when she was training to be a teacher there. Apparently earlier in the week, a man had come to a performance who was a childhood friend of Douglas Gresham and used to play in the woods by the Kilns with him.
Has any one else seen the show? If so, please share your experiences.