The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

A very big thank you to CHAOS Music and Drama Society for their invitation to see their latest production, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, performed at the Drill Hall Chepstow. It was very good to see this company working for the first time with the addition of a four-piece band rather than the recorded music, creating a whole new dimension to their performance.

The small cast worked very hard to give life to this quite intricate tale, moving from scene to scene with considerable support from a very busy backstage crew. The clever and imaginative use of the singular wardrobe taking centre stage, took the eye of the audience and controlled each scene as well as any magic trick could.

The change from the entrance to the wardrobe and into the world of Narnia was well accomplished and enhanced with a simple but striking stage setting and very effective lighting. The whole scene was quite magical and used the limited space to great effect.

The main characters of this well-loved story; the four children, set the initial scene very well and clearly set out the character of each child.

Susan played by Tayla Robinson, Peter played by Corey Price, Lucy played by Anwen Pugh and Edmund played by Angela power. Congratulations to you all.

Isla Richards as The White Witch, left no doubt as to the character she portrayed. Cold aloof and striking in appearance, she made the perfect villain. Her characterisation never faltered, and her entrance was impressive, as it should be. My congratulations on this staging.

Natasha Kus as the fawn Mr Tumnus, created a character that we could all recognise. With good stage presence and excellent facial expression, she had an excellent rapport with Anwen Pugh as Lucy in their scene together as Lucy entered Narnia.

Who doesn’t want to be Aslan and Mark Bonner had both the voice and the stature, especially with the rather outstanding head dressing.

Mr and Mrs beaver played by Phillipa Hickey and Marianne Bowen, gave a lovely performance of this caring if somewhat disorganised duo and are always favourite characters in this story of friendship and bravery.

The main principal characters were very well supported by the whole cast with some very quick changes and movement of stage dressing  in the many different scenes as the story unfolded. My congratulations to you all in the telling of this iconic tale.

 

The views in this report are solely of the author.

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