Chris Eldon Lee reviews ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’, which is at Birmingham Repertory Theatre until Saturday 16th January 2015.
I think it was Walt Disney who devised the cyclical scheme for Christmas shows. Having produced seven classic cartoons, he re-released them one by one every seven years on that grounds that the children who saw it last time had now grown up; and there was a whole new generation who’d missed it. Clever eh? But of course with live theatre, the story is not set in celluloid.
It’s seven years since Birmingham Rep presented the RSC’s version of ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ and this re-cast, re-scored and re-imagined version is considerably improved. This time round, for example, I adored the new arrangements of Shaun Davey’s suite of deeply reminiscent songs. Jo Servi, as Mr Tumnus, has a haunting, bell-like voice and the soaring style of “Always Winter, Never Christmas” immediately establishes the classiness of the show.
Writer Adrian Mitchell has come up with a lovely range of lyrics, encompassing a rumbustious drinking song and a gently melancholy number that places C S Lewis’ characters in literary history. When the children come back from Narnia, they sing about other fictional returnees; Alice, Crusoe and Dorothy.
It’s a very strong cast indeed. The four Pevensie children are beautifully balanced; from the honest, adventurous Lucy (a playfully pigtailed Emile Fleming) to James Thackeray’s lumpy, spoilt and taciturn Edmund. When they arrive at the big house in a rainstorm, only Edmund lacks an umbrella. It’s a tiny moment but already he’s singled out for his sad future.
The women steal the show. Allison McKenzie is excellent as the stiff, crystal white witch; her contorted face sparking with rage. If Lady Ga Ga were ever to play the Queen of Narnia, I suspect she’d be rather like Allison. And the bouncing Beavers are brilliant…especially Sophie Nomvete, who’s joyous comedy timing is a real treat. She and her hubby (Thomas Aldridge) are played as capering cockneys. Perhaps with those false gnashers, the actors voices have no option.
The team has great strength in depth. Danielle Bird is marvellous. We first see her as an inattentive comedy maid …but she returns with the White Queen’s sycophantic puppet dwarf in her hands and almost upstages her royal highness with her grumpy interjections.
Aslan is also a puppet. He is greatly harbingered … and when he appears he is massive and magnificent; a most impressive progression of War Horse stage craft. Operated by three perfectly visible puppeteers, he’s a paper creation with a gauzy mane. When he is shorn of it – by the witch’s minions – there is a real sense of loss.
There is a bold, minimalist, almost East European Theatre feel to the setting of the show; but the framing of it is less successful. Designer Jamie Vartan uses his ‘paper’ theme to give the proscenium a crumpled look…which unfortunately looks just that. The inside of the professor’s house is depicted as a huge sepia photograph; which is a great idea … till it wobbles. And the fact that you can see Narnia through it undermines the separateness of the two worlds.
The snow in Narnia is represented by huge white sheets, which are very practical when spring comes, but just look like white sheets the rest of the time. And the polystyrene snow granules caught in Lucy’s hair make her siblings’ refusal to believe where she’s been a bit of a nonsense.
Unfortunately the unavoidable moment when Father Christmas presents the children with weapons is even more uncomfortable in the current climate than it was seven years ago.
But the magic and artistry of it all … and the superb performances…shine through to make this a fine seasonal show for adults and older children alike. It’s the ‘Good’, as always, that triumphs.
Photo : Graeme Braidwood
Visit www.birmingham-rep.co.uk for information about Birmingham Rep.