The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Performed by HD&OS Young Idea, this classic story is one that many children and adults alike will know and be able to retell you time and time again. Certainly on the evening I attended, the auditorium was bursting at the seams with eager youngsters waiting to meet the key Characters, Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy and of course Aslan. Their wish came true.

The children are central to the production and they were convincingly played by Sam Morris (Peter), Alice Shrimpton (Susan), Ria Cabbani (Lucy) and Richard Churchill (Edmund). They were all charming on stage and handled the somewhat limiting dialogue extremely well. Much of the dialogue was taken from the original text and although reads extremely well is not so easy to transpose into actual words spoken on stage and in most instances the youngsters managed this quite well.

The nature of the story needs strong characters in addition to the children and in the ‘real world’ Benjamin Williamson (Professor) gave us a competent performance and Danielle Churchill was dominant as the Housekeeper, although the harshness of her voice needed to be softened a little so as not to grate on the ear.

In the fantasy world Ella Harris (Mr Tumnus) was a gentle and kind faun and was well suited to the link between the two worlds.

 George Roberts and Fiona Markey were a very effective combination, as Mr and Mrs Beaver and I loved the interpretation and accent that Fiona in particular, gave to Mrs Beaver. Good character work here, well done.

Dani Wolfe as the White Witch had good stage presence but much of her body language and interpretation of the character was very “teenage modern” and therefore hindered the authority she should have had as Queen of Narnia.

Alex Harris played the part of Aslan wonderfully. There was a warmth and genuine empathy with which he played the part and I wish him every success in future roles, definitely one to watch in the parent company. Over the past two years this young man has grown from strength to strength and I thoroughly enjoyed his performance.

The set was interestingly designed and revealed the stone table in Act 2 from under the snow cloth and different levels were incorporated which gave the illusion of distance. The wardrobe was well situated but needed to be aged somewhat. The doors were too clean for me.

Costumes in general were well though through but I was not sure about the short white dress and high heels for The White Witch or tights for Susan. In WW2 stockings would have been a luxury and not given to evacuees.

The production was well supported by some good lighting and sound-effects were well chosen and appropriate.

Congratulations to all involved and thank you once again for your hospitality.

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