The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe roars back to Salford

The Aslan puppet makes his appearance at the Lowry preview event for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Pic by Phil Tragen

At Christmas in 2021, the tour of Leeds Playhouse’s production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was going fine at the Lowry in Salford... until Covid struck.

Then, as Lowry’s Chris Cowton explained: “We still had a wardrobe, and a Witch – but no Lion”. Half the planned performances were lost. But for Christmas 2025 and into the New Year, the show is back – and this time the Lion is on roaring form.

Performers brought Narnia to Lowry for the day to give a preview of the award-winning dramatisation of C S Lewis’s novel, which will be at the Lowry for a five-week run. Guests were treated to performances from the show, and the stunning puppet Aslan made an appearance.

In the story we join Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter as they wave goodbye to wartime Britain and embark on magical adventures in a frozen land, where they meet Mr Tumnus the faun, talking beavers, Aslan – and the cold and evil White Witch. And, of course, Father Christmas makes an appearance: his song, “I am the gift giver”, performed by the cast, was a highlight of the preview event.

Director Michael Fentiman said the Covid hiatus had given the company a chance to bring additional magic and illusion into the show: “If it hadn’t been for the pandemic, we wouldn’t have had the time,” he said.

But this is much more than a magic show: “What’s been ground-shaking for me in this is that kids can respond to tension, wonder and imagination; it holds both children, and those who are older.”

The production anchors its story firmly in World War II context, with a chorus or two of “We’ll meet again” to underline it. The children are in a strange place because they have been evacuated, and costumes, even in Narnia, are reminders of that: Tumnus, for instance, wears an airman’s flak jacket along with his faun appearance.

Award-winning Shakespeare’s Globe and Royal Shakespeare Company associate artist Katy Stephens plays the White Witch, with a costume that weighs almost 50lbs. She revealed: “It’s quite nice to be hated – though some of the boys and girls are on my side.” She wears three different versions of her icy crown, because at the end of the story it melts away, but her own favourite moment is where she’s in her secondary role of the Mole - as the Pevensey children are crowned and spring comes to Narnia.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is at Lowry, Salford, runs from December 3-January 11.

See our review of an earlier performance here