The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe At Theatre Royal, Nottingham Review

Reviewed by Sandip

My family and I were lucky enough to have the chance to go and watch the theatre production of the famous C.S. Lewis’ story The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. My kids, aged 7 and 10 were familiar with the story and have seen the 2005 film version but we had not seen the theatre production and were excited to go. And to be honest, it feels nice to be able to go back to the theatre after over a years worth of postponements.

The play started with a very simple stage set up of a man dressed in army uniform playing a piano on an empty stage, with nothing but a huge clock face adorned with the phases of the moon lit up on the back wall. Occasionally throughout the show, this clock opened up to reveal musicians and characters to depict them being in the distance. The man on the piano was then joined with lots of characters who sang a lovely rendition of the war time classic “we’ll meet again”.

I have been to the theatre quite a few times but I honestly have to say this production was one of the most theatrical, visually stunning and intricately planned ones that I had ever seen. The cast was a reasonably sized one but each and ever one of them was incredibly skilled as an actor and musician. The majority of them not only acted on stage, but they also played instruments, whilst on stage. This was something that I’d never seen before as I’m used to there being a dedicated band located at the front of the stall seats. Many of the cast played multiple roles too, but this wasn’t confusing even for my youngest child, due to the individual costumes and head pieces the actors wore.
Sometimes there were quite a few cast members on stage at the same time but the production was so slick that they never never bumped into each other even when there were lots of twists and turns and sometimes foot tapping kicks in the musical routines. And all this with negotiating space around the onstage musicians. It really was a slick production. There were even clipped trapeze wires that floated various characters off the stage in order to add to the visuals. The most impressive was when the wicked White Witch, played by Samantha Womack, floated up and her white dressed billowed out and then was woven around by the actors below. The couple sat next to our family were literally ‘wowing’ out loud with amazement. Samantha was well cast and played the role with a great sternness and coldness that any Witch responsible for casting a never ending winter should be.

The visuals were very dark and ethereal with lots of clever lighting, light balls and floating drapes. It really was a stunning piece of art. The music and songs in the play were also ethereal with a slight folk element to them but it worked so well. And the voices, wow the voices; they were stunning with such control of the notes and the language used. In the ‘Spring’ song sang by the actor who played Mr Tumnus, it was hard not to be sucked in and transported to the wishes and dreams he sang about willing him to experience a spring much like his father did when he was young.

The four children who were the main characters of the production, the Pevensie children Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edmund, were amazing. Each of them portraying the books characters so well and in a polished performance. Their stage presence and movements were impeccably timed and they did their individual personalities a great justice.

What I haven’t mentioned is the great Aslan himself. The majestic lion who saved the world of Narnia together with the Pevensie children. Aslan was played two fold with a human actor providing the voices and physical contact with the children, and a what I think was a wooden puppet which was controlled by 3 puppeteers who moved together in perfect unison.

In summary, this show was definitely a ‘must see’ show with a fantastically choregraphed production and beautiful music numbers with an incredibly talented cast. All 4 of us, (and the couple next to us) thoroughly enjoyed The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Rating: 5/5

The show is on from Tuesday 1st February to Saturday 5th February 2022.

Tickets can be bought from https://www.lionwitchonstage.com/tickets or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Theatre Royal, Nottingham (trch.co.uk) and the show is playing at multiple venues with tickets ranging from £15.50 to £47.50