The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Sadler's Wells

Fantastic puppetry and the fantasy story lifted from the pages. Whilst targeted to a young audience, there are some discomforting, creepy characters.

Sparks fly during this show, as the magic of the fantasy world ‘Narnia’ is brought to Sadler’s Wells stage. You all know the story; but this is for the next generation to fall in love with the story by C.S. Lewis, through Michael Fentiman’s directing. Transported from war torn England in the 1930s to a fantasy world in conflict, through the eyes of the children: Susan, Lucy, Edmund and Peter. It reminds the audience of the importance of being loyal to your family and perhaps not taking Turkish delight from strangers, especially if they are evil witches… Of all the things you could eat in the world, why Turkish delight was Edmunds choice is beyond me. It indeed has the WOW factor in the magic and puppetry area. In terms of performance elements, structure and writing: it lacks flow and is it a musical? Dance piece? Play? Basically, it’s everything, but not enough for it to fit under any of the genres.

There is a magnificent show case of tech elements in this show and spellbinding stage design. Aslan the lion is a piece of set design that will blow you away, he is the huge lion puppet worked by a small number of puppeteers. He is so life like and as soon as he enters the stage the audience are in awe of his strong stance! Max Humphries are the original puppet designer, Toby Olié is the original puppetry Director and Tom Paris the Set and costume designer. There is not one moment in this show that is an artistic set moment, they don’t miss any opportunity to wow the audience, however big or small the moments are. Whilst Aslan wow’s most of the audience, a personal favourite of mine was the professor’s cat Schrödinger. He was this realistic fluffy cat puppet and the puppeteer worked marvellously to bring the cat to life, with a lot of personality! The staging shows all the amazing areas of Narnia, such as Mr Tumnus’ home. A huge while sheet is lifted to create an almost tent looking home and mahogany furniture. This give the forest feel and is put up so quickly and like magic! Staging kept the flow of the scenes smooth, whilst the acting and movement fragmented moments.

Whilst the story is a fantasy, the acting felt too exaggerated and unnatural. The relationship between the children was not realistic; it just made scenes feel prolonged! However, one of the best performances was by Katy Stephens as the 'White Witch' and Stanton Wright as Aslan. The contrast between the two and their conflict built an abundance of tension. Although I know the story well, I was still on the edge of my seat. Their power struggle is clear, and when they enter the stage, their status is clear. Strong characters. The ensemble work is great in terms of showing the tone of each scene, and there is a huge range of animated characters in Narnia. However, the moments in the real world are not as strong, and sequences feel disorganised and out of sync at times. In terms of showing war-torn Britain, opening the show with 'We'll meet again' felt too simple and overdone. The train scenes and evacuee section were strong enough and would have set the context perfectly.

The show is magical without a doubt. A lot of work went into bringing the Narnia magic and characters to life. Some absolutely gorgeous puppets and costumes. The content itself does not give the story its glory, as the acting is too exaggerated and at times a little dark. Considering it is targeted at children 7+, some of the characters on the White Witches' side were a little too unsettling. On the other hand, the acting by these evil characters was exceptional, and they fully committed to their roles; they were some of the most convincing characters. This is a great display of high-quality stage magic and fantasy; there are just a few areas that need a little alteration and exploration. They do lift Narnia from the pages of the book, and Aslan's puppet was a divine centrepiece.