The Lion, The Witch &Tthe Wardrobe

Many thanks to St James's Players for inviting me to see their production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on Saturday 10th June 2023 at St James’ Church Hall in Lostock Hall. The version of this play was an adaption by Glyn Robbins of C.S. Lewis’ classic fantasy novel about four siblings who enter the magical land of Narnia through a wardrobe. The children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, are sent to live with a professor in the countryside during the Second World War. In Narnia, they encounter talking animals, mythical creatures, and the evil White Witch who has cast a spell of eternal winter. The children join forces with Aslan, a lion who is the true king of Narnia, to defeat the witch and restore Narnia to its former glory.

Direction was taken on by Adam Smith who crafted this story exceptionally well. There was a nice blend of theatrical styles integrated into the performance. The piece opened with what I would describe as a stylised piece of physical theatre, creating various tableaux and short snippets of intense theatrical moments which were enacted underpinned with an enchanting yet dramatic soundscape, including some war time Winston Churchill radio broadcast recordings and some dynamic theatrics created through projection and lighting. All this giving an emotive understanding to the context of the piece, with the children being evacuated during the war. There was a great naturalistic style utilised for the scenes within the professor’s home, which contrasted greatly with high energy, caricatured characters whom they bumped into along within Narnia. This not only provided insight into some of the fantasy themes of the storyline, but this also made the piece very animated and accessible for the younger member of the audience. There was a fabulous union and cohesion within the cast, and there was nice pace and dynamics throughout. I was impressed with the staging as this venue has a relatively small stage so I can imagine the logistical complexities which went into ensuring each location within the storyline were uniquely staged, to help contextualise the narrative. I really loved the moment where 2 dancers were brought in during one of the scene changes within Narnia and I did wonder why this wasn’t used more, especially within the longer scene changes. Also of note was the choreography and execution of the stage fighting, particularly the broad sword moments, these were well rehearsed and drilled, of a suitable level of complexity to not appear simple, but also be articulately delivered.

The design elements of the production were great throughout. The set design by Nicola Davis was brilliant, using different backdrops to flip between the different worlds the children explored on their journeys. Narnia was a wonderland, with icicle fairy light decorating the front of the stage ceiling, Christmas trees dotted around the extremities of the stage space, and as noted before some very detailed and fitting trucks and other items of set brought on to add further context to the scenes. Costume was provided by Lilian Eastham were very excellent, fitting to the period for the naturalistic scenes and matching the caricature feel of the characters within Narnia. Lighting and sound by Dylan Couperthwaite and Mark Couperthwaite were both highly dynamism and added lots of texture to the performance.

There was a great unity amongst the cast as a whole with some wonderful characterisations brought to life on the stage. My only fault with the characterisations was that I felt some of the animal characters could have gone further to explore and embody the animalistic character traits within their parts, as some players fully embraced this, some went part way and other were humans dressed in character costumes, and I was more enthralled by those who committed fully to their physical characterisations. I am not sure if this is a comment for the direction or the actors so I am making a generic comment here and will deliberate further where I feel fit.

The 4 lead children were a delight to watch on stage. They created individual characters which stood their own within plot, but also blended well as a unit and were thoroughly believable as siblings. What I found most notable about all of their performances was their reactions and responses to all moments on stage were authentic to their characters, which showed to me the fully understood their own characters journeys within the plot. Edmund, described as “the just” was played by Alfie Wilson, was portrayed as a light-hearted character with great energy and a nice upbeat feel. Lucy, “the valiant” was very well played by Grace Davies as a highly emotional and excitable character, I really connected to the emotion she brought to moments within the story. Peter, “the magnificent” was played by Lewis Kellett, who displayed this character as the more serious one of the group, and was quite matter of fact in his delivery. Susan, “the gentle”, was played by Lydia Elsden, epitomised this description as a calm and collected character who served as the go to leader of the group.

Angela Ross and Mac McCormack doubled up in their parts. Angela was a delight to watch in both of her roles, creating 2 strong characterisations, the stern and authoritative Mrs Macready and the animated and very readable minion to the white witch, Ginerrbrik, I think what made these performances stand out for me was her investment to these characters emotively, facially, vocally and physically. Mac took on the parts of Professor and Father Christmas. Both characters were played gently and with a nice likeability. I did feel more storytelling into the final moments of the show with the professor may have made the subtext that he too had had adventures in Narnia more readable to the audience. Mr Tumnus, the Faun, was played by Adam Smith. He was very charming and endearing within the part and brought great animation and energy to his scene, this was one of the roles I thought could use physicality further to suspend the notion for not being human further, I thought perhaps by walking with bended knees to break the upright stance. Mr and Mrs Beaver were played by Andrew Croft and Jackie Bird, as what a pair these were. Again, both very animated, but bringing wonderful idiosyncratic gestures and physicality’s to their parts. They worked very well together bringing out some comedy over the pair’s humble and long relationship.  The infamous Aslam was played by Andy Smith who brought some great gravitas to the role. I felt at time he embodied the lion’s prowess, but others he presented as a noble character, and I really wanted him to drive forward with more feline mannerisms. Similarly, Stu Cann played the wolf character, Maugrim. He came across very mean and menacing in this part, which was great, and there were times I felt he fully committed to embodying this, but other times, I felt he reverted to human mode, particularly when not as involved in the action directly. The 2 leopards (and the dancers aforementioned) were played by Darcy Cartwright and Daisy Alty. I loved the way they moved like soldiers in these roles but thought the choreography could have been more animalistic and less military to tie in with the above, great focus and intent behind their work was given by these 2.  Kath Cann delivered well as Mother in the opening scenes, I really felt the pain she was going through evacuating her children.  Last but by no means least, The White Witch was played by Anne Arkwright, who really shone in this role. She was very commanding and authoritative, setting her character as superior to the others on the stage. She used a classical vocal technique, speaking from the solar plexus and elongating and moving around her vowel resonance. This, along with great eye focus and intent, gave emphasis to her deceptive and manipulative intent.

Thanks again to St James Players for a wonderful evening of entertainment and I look forwards to seeing more from this society very soon.

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