The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is the seasonal offering in the Quarry theatre at Leeds Playhouse until 25 January 2025. We attended the signed performance on Friday 22 November. The audience was mixed with quite a lot of children present. I spoke to four children whose comments were very positive. You should be aware that it is quite dark and scary at times and not suitable for very young children, the age guide is 6+. Children of any age will like the wardrobe and room set in the bar area for a photo opportunity.
The stage was initially set with a lone pianist playing wartime music and a large clockface donating time, but which at several points in the performance showed various scenes and characters.
The story has been well told over the years on TV and film and tells the story of the four Pevensie children who are evacuated from London to Inverness in Scotland, you see their Mother in the clock circle during their departure on the train. Keep your eyes on this as it provides various insights at strategic points during the performance and especially towards the end.
The play starts with wartime music expertly played on various instruments by cast members in the railway station around the piano. The journey is well portrayed with a model steaming train engine and carriages expertly weaving around the stage and characters all the way to disembarking in Scotland, where the children are collected, leaving the four, Susan, Edmund, Peter and Lucy (played by Joanna Adaran, Bunmi Osadolor, Jesse Dunbar and Kudzai Mangombe) to be met by the strict Mrs Macready to be taken to Professor Diggory Kirke’s home where they are to be living. They meet Schröedinger the cat, expertly puppetted so much so that you almost forget that he’s not a live animal.
When Lucy discovers the wardrobe, the fantasy of Narnia emerges with snow falling, meeting Mr Tumnus and with drapes flowing to make his house. She returns and Edmund goes through, and meets the white Witch Jadis (Katy Stevens) resplendent in furs and drapes on her see-saw chariot drawn by wolves who cavort around very skilfully to take him prisoner.
With Edmund missing, Lucy persuades the others to go through the wardrobe, where they need to find Edmund. They are befriended by Mrs Beaver and Mr Beaver, an otter, hedgehog, a squirrel and others and learn that Mr Tumnus has been turned to stone and Edmund is a prisoner of the White Witch. The streaks of light in the stage floor appear when magic is created and the children finally see the white witch in all her glory.
The changes in Narnia start to appear, with spring, and a jolly ‘Myra the gift giver – Sinterclaus’ singing and dishing out appropriate presents to the children. They meet Aslan the lion provided by an intricate triple puppetry and a wonderful fur robed majesty alongside performed by Stanton Wright.
Jadis arising with her wolves dancing around is quite breathtaking but scary as she prepares for the duel with Aslam.
The costumes throughout are a credit to the department and in keeping with the era. The use of snowshoes to represent the beaver tails is quite inspiring and the squirrels tail is superb. The puppets throughout are expertly controlled to appear lifelike.
The cast, apart from the children, take on several roles, most of which entail playing instruments. While not quite a musical, the music and singing provided by the multi talented cast enhance this production and it has a happy ending, which is what we all expect.
We would recommend this production, we thoroughly enjoyed the performance and would go back again, as I’m sure we missed some of the action.
A learning resource pack is available from lionwitchonstage.com
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe runs at Leeds Playhouse until 25 January 2025. Full details and tickets at: www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk/event/the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe-2
This post was written by reader Barbara Beck in return for two free tickets, as part of South Leeds Goes To The Playhouse.
Main photo: The children meet Aslan © Brinkhoff-Moegenburg
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