The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

★★★★★    Exceptional

Festival Theatre: Tue 13 – Sat 17 May 2025
Review by Rebecca Mahar

Brimming with music and whimsy, fear and wonder, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, touring to the Festival Theatre all week, is a spectacular interpretation of C.S. Lewis’s classic novel.

It is spectacular in the literal sense that it is full of spectacle from curtain to curtain: packed with illusions, sumptuous design and technical bombast. This never becomes overwhelming, though: it’s perfectly balanced to create the world of four child evacuees from the Blitz who discover a magical kingdom in the back of a wardrobe; enlivening all its various locations and characters with exactly the right amount of magic.

Bunmi Osadolor (Edmund) Jesse Dunbar (Peter) Kudzai Mangombe (Lucy) Joanna Adaran (Susan). Pic: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg.

Michael Fentiman directs a company of actor-musicians in this re-worked version of Sally Cookson’s original 2017 production. Led by the Pevensie children: Kudzai Mangombe (Lucy), Jesse Dunbar (Peter), Joanna Adaran (Susan) and Bunmi Osadolor (Edmund), and with Craig Thornber as the enigmatic Professor Kirke, most of the performers take on multiple roles to fill out the inhabitants of the human world and of the magical Narnia, where it’s always winter, but never Christmas

It may not be a musical, but this production definitely wouldn’t be the same without Barnaby Race and Benji Bower’s music, which is played onstage by the company, even as they sing, dance, and act their hearts out. Not just because of the wordless parts of the score, but the songs of the Narnians, telling of times gone by and times to come; prophecy and mystery and hope.

breathtaking

The crowning glory of the entire production comes early on in the form of one of these songs: a breathtaking sequence in the faun, Mr. Tumnus’s house. When There Was Spring is sung with devastating pathos and power by Alfie Richards as Tumnnus, treasuring a flower pressed secretly between the pages of a book.

Kudzai Mangombe (Lucy) and Andrew Davison (Schrödinger). Pic: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg.

Puppetry features heavily in this adaptation, from the Professor’s charming cat, Schrödinger (who seems to know more than he lets on — or does he?), to a nightmare being made of Turkish delight, to Aslan himself. The rightful king of Narnia is portrayed by a team of four: three puppeteers (Andrew Davison, Molly Francis, Rhodri Watkins), controlling an enormous lion, and an actor (Stanton Wright) dressed in fur, who speaks Aslan’s words.

treated with love and care

Wright and the puppeteers work in wonderful tandem, with the movements of person and puppet aligned. Adding more layers to this choice, everyone generally speaks to the puppet-lion; except his usurper, Jadis the White Witch (Katy Stephens), and Lucy, both of whom address the man-Aslan.

Apart from its wonderfully detailed performances, exceptionally well unified design elements (set and costumes by Tom Paris and lighting by Jack Knowles), and enchanting music, this production is full of moments that could have been made little, but are instead treated with love and care.

The company of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Pic: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg.

The Pevensies’ train journey from London is a brilliant sequence – with Edmund’s assertion that the Professor’s house in Aberdeenshire is in the middle of nowhere getting an extra titter here in Edinburgh; Schrödinger (puppeteered by Andrew Davison) being fed treats and leaping up onto Lucy’s lap; returns from Narnia indicated not by a simple blackout, but the twirling of doors and their catching of light across the stage.

heart

For all its spectacle, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe manages to never lose sight of its heart: four children, separated from their parents by war and uncertainty, learning to trust and rely on each other, and themselves.

Running time: Two hours and fifteen minutes (including one interval).
Festival Theatre, 13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT
Tues 13 – Sat 17 May 2025.
Evenings: 7:30pm; Thurs, Sat mat: 2:30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Access performances: Thurs 15 (7.30pm) captioned. Sat 17 (2:30pm) audio described and BSL interpreted.

Glasgow King’s Theatre, 297 Bath St, Glasgow G2 4JN
Tue 10 – Sat 14 June 2025.
Evenings: 7.30pm; Mats Wed, Thu, Sat: 2.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.

Joanna Adaran (Susan), Jesse Dunbar (Peter), Kudzai Mangombe (Lucy) and Stanton Wright (Aslan). Pic: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg.

The company of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Pic: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg.

ENDS

Tags: Alfie Richards, Andrew Davison, Barnaby Race, Benji Bower, Bunmi Osadolor, C.S. Lewis, Craig Thornber, Festival Theatre, Jesse Dunbar, Joanna Adaran, Katy Stephens, Kudzai Mangombe, Michael Fentiman, Molly Francis, Rebecca Mahar, Review, Rhodri Watkins, Stanton Wright, The Lion the witch and the wardrobe, Theatre