The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe

Director, Dee Bennie-Marshall and the Production Team had worked some ‘deep magic’ to support the talented young people of RTSA to gave an incredible performance in this musical version of the C S Lewis classic story The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  Musical Director, Matthew Symonds, had clearly encouraged the young people to perform these new numbers with great passion and they were well supported by a live eight piece band.  Dee had designed exciting routines and movement for the production numbers and Charlotte Wall’s work as Dance Captain was evident in the great timekeeping and the energy displayed in all the production routines.

I felt that the characterisation by all the cast was super and they had clearly worked very hard to develop and maintain their characters throughout the show.  The four children in the story were played by Matt Whittaker (Peter), Ciara Stothard (Susan), Jack Lockley (Edmund) and I had the pleasure of seeing Brooke Green make her principal debut for the company as Lucy.  All four demonstrated great acting ability and amazed me with their clear and accurate delivery of very large roles.  They showed all round talent as they also sang and danced just as well. The role of Lucy is alternated with Darcy Beech and I have been assured by NODA colleagues who have seen her performance as Lucy that she too was excellent.

The role of the Snow Queen was very well played by Chloe Jackson.  Her dramatic delivery and excellent poise on stage made you believe that this young girl really was the evil White Witch.  Tumnus was played to great effect by Dan Fenwick who walked throughout the show on hooves – super work in making the audience empathise with this character who turns traitor.  Will Legetter and Daisy Lockley as Mr and Mrs Beaver were hugely entertaining.  Kiran Richards took the role of the evil dwarf, Grumpskin.  He spent the whole production on his knees in a clearly designed costume which he managed very well.  There was also great work by Reece Mitchell as Maugrim, Harvey Cartlidge as the Professor and Donald McInness as Father Christmas. Everyone on stage demonstrated real enthusiasm for this production and worked hard to transport the audience through the wardrobe with them to the Land of Narnia.

The showing stopping moment was the appearance of the huge puppet lion, Aslan.  Oliver Fells was the main puppeteer and did this while delivering Aslan’s emotive speeches.  An excellent piece of theatre, particularly as there had been very limited time to rehearse with this amazing creature.  Congratulations too to the two cast members who supported Oliver in operating Aslan. 

The costumes were very effective and kept to the period of the story.  The scenery was achieved through the use of front and rear projection.  Every image had been cleverly selected to fit with the scenes and together with the perfect sound and light it gave a very sharp technical edge to the production.  The stage management ensured swift changing of the scenes was well done with effective props.

Congratulations to everyone involved – a beautiful and dramatic production performed with great maturity by this young cast.  Long live the land of Narnia.

 

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