The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe

C S Lewis is a name that immediately conjures up a certain kind of magic for children being inextricably married with the Chronicles of Narnia, which must easily be the Belfast writers most famous legacy. As such it was a delight to take my daughter Emily to Kevin Locke's production delivered by the effervescent Henfield Theatre Company as I suspected we would be in for a treat. I was not wrong.

The four children, the sweet Lucy, played by Freya Taylor-Lester, Edmund with his mischievous and typical juvenile boyish charm, Charlie Hanning, the sensible Susan, Lily Piper and the stiff older brother Peter, played by Riley Bridgewater, were all excellently cast and opened the show with the verve and sparkle that would permeate throughout.

Chris Whitehead was a fittingly kind and gentle professor and equally congenial doubling as Aslan the lion once the children had gone through the suitably huge wardrobe into Narnia. The use of echo as the children transitioned was a very nice touch in what was excellent sound throughout, provided by Dave & Same Bunrett and augmented with fitting light design by Nick Brayne & Adam Butler.

The Set designed byt Nigel Stevens and built by SM, Peter Sheppard and workshop, was spectacular and they are very lucky to have such a talented team of artists providing such excellent support. At most of the Henfield shows that I have been to the sets always entice a audible reaction and often applause from their audiences and Emily & I joined in showing our appreciation again this time.

All of the adults delivered good performances with some stand out cameos such as the hilarious shuffling Mr & Mrs Beaver, played by Jonny Tysoe and Susan Locke, which was a master stroke of direction as it really defined and cemented the physicality of the characters. Maugrim, played by Sinead Lawson was hissing and growlingly disconcerting and along with Tracey Bates terrorised the residents of Narnia very effectively on behalf of the wicked White Witch, confidently delivered by Isobelle Cryer.

Emma Desbruslais choreography was magically fitting for the theme of the show and beautifully delivered by Emily Katz, Charlotte Pinder, Cherry Ellis, Edie Gardiner, Leonie Rodway and Victor Lucy-Fernandez.

Lyn Fryer and her team rounded the visual spectacle off perfectly with costumes that conjured up exactly the images synonymous with the piece.

Children are always the best barometer for a fairytale and this production got a big thumbs up from Emily and daddy was transported for a magical two hours back to his childhood too. Thank you Henfield. 

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.