The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- Richard Evans
- Aug 6, 2025
- 2 min read
Adapted from the book by CS Lewis
Chris Harper Productions and Catherine Shreiber, Michael Watt Productions, No Guarantees, Winkler and Smalberg, Jonathan Church Theatre Productions, Echo Lane Entertainment, Laurence Myers, James Seabright, Jones Theatrical Group
Venue Cymru, Llandudno
August 5-9, 2025; 2 hrs 30 mins
(Also at the Lowry, Salford, December 3, 2025-January 11, 2026)
CS Lewis’s classic story of good against evil and light overcoming darkness has been dramatised on stage, film and TV many times, and this production is one of the most lavish seen on a British stage.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe sees four wartime evacuees placed in a rambling stately home far from their own home while their father is at war. They accidentally find a portal to a magical land, where it is always winter but never Christmas, ruled cruelly be a white witch. Unknowingly, the quartet is the catalyst to breaking her hold over the land and the forerunners of Aslan, the Lion; together, they redeem the land and restore it to its former peaceful, idyllic state. Before that happens, Aslan has to deal with the treachery of Edmund - which means he is sacrificed but then is resurrected before the final battle, the crowning of the children as Narnia's rulers and their eventual return to the real world. All in 27 minutes... Amazing what can be achieved if we can play around with time and space.
The cast excels in bringing this drama to life. The four leads, Jesse Dunbar as Peter, Joanna Adaran as Susan, Kudzai Mangombe as Lucy and Bunmi Osadolor as Edmund, portray the children well, but it is the incidental characters who bring life, colour and vitality to the production. Kate Stephens as the white witch in particular is scary until her comeuppance.
The set adds much to the drama, with many slick transitions and imaginative effects and puppetry. The transition through the wardrobe was highly effective, as was the raising up of the white witch at the end of Act 1 to emphasise her supposed power.
Director Michael Fentiman emphasises the impact of warfare and displacement. This fantasy world is an escape from the depressing reality of evacuation and a way of coming to terms with their suffering. While this is important and part of the story, this is the work of a famously Christian author, which is an allegory of the actions central to the Christian faith, such as the the death and resurrection of Jesus. The play, faithful to the book, portrays this admirably.
It is difficult to stage this well-known and much-loved story. Its great detail often suffers cuts and the lost of cherished passages to make it work on stage. Technology also presents challenges - evidenced by a 10-minute hiatus in Act 2 to sort out what I believe was a technical hitch.
But this production still communicates Lewis’s story from the Chronicles of Narnia really well, joining a rattling good storyline to the immediacy of live stage action to offer a compelling evening's entertainment.
More info and tickets here
