LYCEUM, SHEFFIELD – UNTIL 18th OCTOBER 2025
REVIEWED BY ALISON BEAUMONT
4****
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is based on the novel by C S Lewis.
It follows the story of four children Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy who are evacuated from London during World War II to go to live in a house with a Professor. Lucy comes across a wardrobe in one of the rooms and when she goes into it she finds the magical world of Narnia. She meets a fawn named Mr Tumnus and has tea with him, he tells her that as she is the daughter of Eve that he should take her to the Wicked Witch for her to be killed but he cannot go through with it and lets Lucy go back. Lucy’s brothers and sister think she is making a story up but then Edmund discovers the world of Narnia and meets the Wicked Witch, the Queen of Narnia, who tricks him into bringing his brothers and sisters to Narnia. Aslan, the lion, who is the official King of Narnia returns to Narnia and sacrifices himself for the lives of the children. The children battle against the Wicked Witch to bring back the good in the land of Narnia and when they are victorious, they are crowned Kings and Queens.
The music in the play was carried out by actors on the stage which was particularly impressive and showed how talented they were. I especially liked the vocals of Mrs Beaver played by Anya De Villiers. Both the beaver’s brought a welcomed fresh air to the play.
The lion puppet of Aslan was visually very good and its movements were very realistic and impressive, however, personally I think it was too futuristic looking and I would have liked to have seen a nice lion puppet with fur. Next to the lion puppet was an actor (Stanton Wright) playing the part of Aslan wearing a fur coat. I found this quite off putting as I wasn’t sure who I was supposed to be looking at, I think one or the other would have been better.
The scenes and settings were good and they used white drapes to transfer effortlessly from one scene to another. At the end of the first act the Wicked Witch played by Katy Stephens flies into the air with drapes attached as her dress flowing down to the floor, this combined with the lighting was a definite wow moment for me. There were magic tricks through the show which were great and unexpected.
Although the actors playing Peter (Jesse Dunbar), Susan (Joanna Adaran), Edmund (Bunmi Osadolor) and Lucy (Kudzai Mangombe) were okay, I felt there was something lacking and that they didn’t sound childlike enough.
Unfortunately for me I found it a really dark production and saw a couple of children snuggle up to the person next to them in a couple of parts. I do think that it is a personal preference production and would urge people to go and form their own opinion.