Aylesbury Waterside Wednesday – until Saturday 11th October 2025
Reviewed by Rachel Clark
5*****
A Magical Performance
The London West End – in Aylesbury!. A fantastic production with live music, puppetry, magic which drew you in.
The performance starts before the starting time with a single pianist on the stage playing war time songs, the stage is just a piano against a black background, very dark but in a good way, it is dramatic.
The performance is based on the C S Lewis novel and is fully followed as the book. It exported me back to being a child (which was a while ago) and reading the novel but also watching the TV series. The story is about 4 children from the Pevensie family, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, who are evacuated during the Second World War to a house in Scotland. Upon exploring the house Lucy finds a wardrobe, she steps through the wardrobe and she comes across the country – Narnia where it has been winter for over 100 years, ruled by the Evil White Witch that turns creatures into stone, and only Alsam and the 2 girls from Adam and Eve and 2 boys can save Narnia and show the sunlight again.
The stage is very simple but it was powerful, the changes in the sets and scenes was done in a magical way, like illusions. The start of the performance was at the railway station and journey was very cleverly carried out that gave you the sense of the journey on the steam train.
Lucy was played by Kudzai Mangombe and she played the excited child, that was inquisitive and enthusiastic she played the part so well you forgot she wasn’t a child. Her siblings were Peter played by Jesse Dunbar, Susan played by Joanna Adaran and Edmund – Bunmi Osadolor – all played convincing, that they were children. Lucy was the first to step into Narnia and she met Mr Tummis, (Alfie Richards) if you read the book he came across exactly how I visualised him.
It was quite a large cast, some playing multiple characters and most if not all played a musical instrument.
The White Witch played by Ffion Haf in this production, was good but didn’t come across too evil but looked stunning in her fur coat.
Alsam was a puppet but also a character played by Stanton Wright, I will say whilst the puppetry was faultless and Stanton , I felt the head and mane weren’t large enough for the front legs, that to me were visually wrong, my only other niggle was the costumes were superb except for the crowns – they looked like they were made out of card – not the quality of the rest of the set/costumes and scenery.
A superb production, to me for age 10 upwards, not sure a younger child would not be kept entertained without fidgeting and it was a dark set with powerful music with plenty of bass! This added to the dramatics and made it what it was. It felt like it was a production for the adults after reading the book as children, it took us back superbly to our childhood memories.