The true mark of a good show is when you tell yourself “I will come back to watch this again.” Well, this is how I felt minutes after the standing ovation at the end of ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ on press night.
There is so much going on on The Gillian Lynne stage theatre that my eyes (and brain) could not capture it all, especially the scene at the end of Act 1 (which will blow you away), hence the need to experience it again to take in what I might have missed the first time around.
‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ is the classic fairytale from C.S. Lewis that was the first and best known of the seven novels in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia.’ In this show, the Pevensie family (Ammar Duffus as Peter, Delainey Hayles as Lucy, Shaka Kalokoh as Edmund and Robyn Sinclair as Susan) are evacuated from London in 1940 to escape the Blitz and are sent to live in a large house in the English countryside, a house with one very dark secret – a wardrobe that is the doorway to the magical and mysterious world that is Narnia. Lucy is the first to discover this new world, full of characters including Mr. Beaver, Fox Trot, the Red Squirrel, Blue Badger, The Lion (a puppet handled by three puppeteers), Aslan the noble king of Narnia and The White Witch (Samantha Womack). Soon enough the rest of the Pevensie family enter this world, as will you, and are swept away to a land that is fantastical, mysterious, dark, a bit scary, and unforgettable.
‘The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe’ is a breathtaking show put together by a team of very talented people including the Director Michael Fentiman, set and costume designer Tom Paris, the lighting and sound team, and choreography by Shannelle Tali Fergus, with puppetry direction and design by Toby Olie and Max Humphries. A credible cast also helps to bring this story alive.
‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ is an enchanting show. I recommend you to step through the wardrobe into this magical, enchanted world too.
Voted the nation’s favourite novel and engrossing readers for over 70 years, this spectacular stage adaptation returns to London for a limited run, and will end on January 8th, 2023.
Photo by Brinkhoff-Moegenburg