WITH a few brush strokes in his paintings The Finish and The Greyhound, artist John Skeaping created all the power, grace and beauty of two horses fighting out the finish of a race, and a greyhound’s elegance of movement. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first and best known of his seven Chronicles of Narnia novels, with a few strokes of his pen C S Lewis opened up a whole world of imagination to it’s readers – world that vividly underlines the constant battle between good and evil, poses many moral questions and underlines the strength and power that love and friendship has when like people band together.
In this terrific adventure story set during World War 2, the four Pevensie siblings Susan (Joanna Adaran), Peter (Jesse Dunbar), Edmund (Bunmi Osadolor) and Lucy (Kudzai Mangombe) are evacuated to a remote and uninviting country mansion. When they enter the world of Narnia – via an entrance in an ancient wardrobe – they find themselves in a magical world of people, mythical creatures and talking animals involved in a life-and-death struggle between Katy Stephens’ heartless White Witch, quite prepared to turn to torture and murder in order to keep control of Narnia, and the noble giant golden lion, Aslan. Every bit as imposing as the War Horse, with Stanton Wright acting as his voice and physical presence, Aslan is a wonderful example of the puppeteers art.
With a fine band of on-stage musicians to change the mood at the drop of a hat, and an outstanding lighting plot that heightens the drama and at times brings a frightening reality to the storytelling, this is no peaches and cream fairy tale with a guaranteed happy ending. The battle between the White Queen and her viciously masked army, against Aslan, the children and an host of delightful anthropomorphic animals, is very much for real.
A great deal of the story is indeed very dark, but with the music and heartwarming characters like Alfie Richards’ self-sacrificing faun Mr Tumnus, Anya De Villiers and Ed Thorpe’s Mr and Mrs Beaver, and Kraig Thornber metamorphosing from the kindly professor, via Father Christmas to a wise old owl, there were plenty of warm and kind people on stage.
If you can’t get to see this visual treat before Saturday at the Bristol Hippodrome, you can catch up with it at Aylesbury’s Waterside Theatre between Tuesday 7th and Saturday 11th October.
GRP