About the Playwright
Dramaturgy by Rachel Lane

Shadowlands, a fictional presentation of the relationship between British author, C.S. Lewis and American-born Joy Gresham, was originally conceived for Thames television. Producer Norman Stone enlisted the assistance of Lewis biographer, Brian Sibley, to pen the script. When British television dropped the project, and refused to relinquish the script rights, Stone approached William Nicholson to write a new teleplay. Shadowlands was the result of Nicholson's efforts, and was produced in 1985 for BBC Television in a production starring, Claire Bloom and Joss Acklund.

Nicholson later rewrote his teleplay and the result was Shadowlands. The title was drawn from C.S. Lewis' writings, a Christian interpretation of the myth of the Cave from Plato's Republic. Much of the tension in Nicholson's play derives from the tension between Lewis' Christian convictions and Joy Gresham's status as a divorced, Jewish woman.

Additionally, Nicholson is the author of many documentaries and screenplays, among them his emmy-nominated, Crime of the Century. Nicholson's successful screenplays include, Nell (1994), First Knight (1995), and Gladiator (2000). Shadowlands, a film starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, earned Nicholson a 1993 Academy Award nomination for best screenplay.