Fentiman Puts New Fizz Into CS Lewis Classic

Mesmerising, powerful and magical, Michael Fentiman’s reimagining of CS Lewis’ The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe, will be another festive winner for Leeds Playhouse, with its rich performances, characterisations and stunning staging.

I first saw Sally Cookson’s theatre-in-the-round production at the same venue in 2017, and remember being knocked over by her imaginative take on the first of Lewis’ seven Narnia Chronicles.

Indeed, I wondered how Fentiman would match his predecessor’s 360-degree approach, but what a wonderful, engaging production he has delivered, inspired by Cookson’s original. Sinister? In parts yes. Dark? Absolutely. But, full of story, costumes, engagement and sheer storytelling at its finest: no doubt!

In many ways, this wasn’t so much an evolving piece of theatre as a new production because, as much as I loved Cookson’s earlier take, I really did watch a very different show last night: multi-instrumentalist performers, for example, and as one colleague commented, “almost a musical”. Not quite, but very much a play with strong musical numbers. That memory wasn’t there from 2017.

I could see Disney’s The Lion King and hear something akin to Hebden Bridge’s Morris Dancers! There were overtures of Northern Broadsides in choreographer, Shannelle ‘Tali’ Fergus’ stunning production numbers, the rhythms of American square dancing and even Edvard Munch’s The Scream made a brief appearance as the White Witch’s retinue of evil doers graced the stage! This was a rich, artistic tapestry of sounds and visual stimulations.

And, in Katy Stephens, Casting Director, Will Burton, found another Glenn Close lookalike for his White Witch – I think I said the same about Carla Mendonca seven years ago – and I loved her: so cold, so icy, so Shakespearean: she could have stepped straight out Macbeth or Hamlet! Wonderful

The four main protagonists, Susan (Joanna Adaran), Peter (Jesse Dunbar), Lucy (Kudzai Mangombe) and Edmund (Bunmi Osadolor), became more and more believable with every passing minute and, by the second half, this production had me well and truly hooked: I was with it all the way!

Overall, the characterisations were brilliant: Mr Beaver (Ed Thorpe), Mr Tumnus (Alfie Richards), the entire cohort of performers, and not forgetting, of course, the wonderful puppeteers whose Aslan, also brought to life by actor Stanton Wright, had all the similarities to War Horse. How quickly you forgot it was a puppet.

CS Lewis was a Christian apologist and you will find whatever you want to find, in this aspect, in Fentiman’s marvellous production.

But when this Oxbridge Don first penned his magical story, the well-loved tale of four wartime evacuees who discover a magical kingdom through the back of a wardrobe, he may well have had a certain literary agenda, a set of beliefs he wanted to communicate even, however, he probably never thought that it would still be a best seller nearly 75 years later, and that it would become a kids’ favourite much more than it would ever be remembered as a vehicle for moral comment.

This is a production you will struggle to demean.

It is emotional, pulls at the heart strings and takes you to a magical world where, for two hours, you watch evil and good battling to triumph. For one moment Aslan might have been Trump and the White Witch, Putin: or was it the other way round? Sometimes life can get confusing!

Do go, you won’t regret it.

The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, Quarry Theatre
Until Sat 25 January. 7pm + matinee performances