Review: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe at Wales Millennium Centre

Rhys John Edwards

Narnia seems to have fallen out of favour in recent years. Whilst pop culture endlessly reveres Hogwarts and Hobbits, C.S Lewis’ world of magic and wonder no longer seems to hold the same cultural weight it used to.

Right now, Barbie Director Greta Gerwig is beavering away (yes, that is a Narnia pun) to revive the franchise for the silver screen, but in the meantime, impatient fans will be pleased to learn there is a mesmerising stage adaptation currently playing at Wales Millennium Centre to plug the gap.

An epic battle of good versus evil

The story should be familiar to most, but to briefly recap: it’s World War Two and Lucy, Edmund, Peter and Susan have been evacuated to the Scottish countryside.

Here, they venture through an old wardrobe into a parallel world – Narnia – and are soon thrust into an epic battle of good versus evil, with plenty of heavy-handed allusions to Christianity thrown in for good measure.

The children in this production were played by adults, which was initially concerning as I often find adult portrayals of children in theatre to be overly energetic and shrill at best, unsettling and creepy at worst.

But Kudzai Mangombe, Bunmi Osadolor, Jesse Dunbar and Joanna Adara were none of the above. They masterfully eased the audience into suspending their disbelief, and were ultimately a pretty convincing quartet of adolescents.

Mangombe’s Lucy and Osadolor’s Edmund stand out – perhaps unfairly, given that their characters are comparatively more interesting than Peter and Susan. Mangombe conveys a palpable kindness and presents her character’s naivety as sweet when it could otherwise have been infuriating.

Edmund, is arrogant and often mean, but Osadolor remembers to show us the character’s childlike ignorance, ensuring he is redeemable by the end.

Unexpectedly moving

Yes, Peter and Susan are thankless roles – far too sensible and constantly reprimanding their younger siblings – but Dunbar and Adara do have their moments, mostly in the scenes shared with Aslan.

Dunbar does a fine job of poignantly reflecting on the sacrifice that’s being made by his father away at war, and Adara’s stoic response to the Witch’s attack on Aslan, is unexpectedly moving.

The Witch is suitably chilling (sorry) – but really, it’s hard to think of a better adjective to describe Katy Stephens performance. She aims for calculated and cruel rather than melodramatically evil and hits the bullseye.

Further props should go to Aslan – both puppet and man. Stanton Wright portrays the human embodiment while Rhodri Watkins operates the impressive beast with superb puppetry.

Wright consciously plays into the messianic overtones of the character but does so with respectable restraint.

It would be easy to fall into pomposity with this role, but he rightly resists the temptation. And of course, Ed Thorpe as Mr Beaver delivers plenty of one-liners, and lends much needed levity to a story which grows ever darker scene by scene.

Elegant stagecraft

The elegant stagecraft elevates this production, with every inch of the stage infected with character. Even before we reach Narnia, an ordinary train journey is made to feel like a trip into a fairytale – with passenger suitcases doubling up as illuminated train carriages.

Almost every item is cradled by a cast member, allowing for inanimate objects to come alive and react to the drama unfolding. If a character gasps, the light fittings rise in time with their intake of breath.

Also, when in Narnia, some cast members literally play snowflakes – but not like they’ve been cast in a pity role in a primary school nativity – they commit to this with purpose. They glide across the stage, aided by graceful choreography, shielding themselves with frost-covered umbrellas, wearing winter cloaks that are admittedly, a little East 17.

Another enriching touch is seen through the way World War Two weaves its way into this Narnia, as if echoes from reality are blending with fantasy.

The animal costumes are combined with army uniforms, and characters speak of the war they must fight against the witch in an almost indistinguishable way from the war that’s being fought in Europe, just the other side of the wardrobe.

A frightening sense of reality

Yes, Act Two moves at such a brisk pace it can sometimes be hard to believe. The siblings meeting Aslan is akin to love at first sight and they assume their roles as protectors of Narnia a little too quickly to be believable.

It is also prone to getting lost in its own lore, but the advantage of all this happening at such speed is you don’t have much time to dwell on these weaknesses.

This can also be forgiven when considering that writer Adam Peck has been tasked with adapting fairly complex aspects of the story which are more easily translatable to screen than they are to stage.

For a supposedly child-friendly fantasy, Peck also doesn’t shy away from depicting a harsh and sometimes frightening sense of reality.

The siblings persevere in spite of devastating odds, as you might expect – but there is no glossing over just how devastating the outcomes might be.

Peck recognises C.S Lewis’ wider point, that true bravery is shown by those willing to shine a light into the darkness, not knowing for sure if they will end up totally consumed by it.

The original novel was published way back in 1950, so you could argue Narnia’s decline in popularity was inevitable, and yet the biggest compliment I can pay to this stage adaptation is that it ultimately serves to suggest the contrary.

Through impressive performances, majestic staging and a staunch commitment to the themes of the original story, this production proves that tales of Narnia deserve to stand the test of time.

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is playing at Wales Millenium Centre until Saturday 15 February.

For further information, visit:
https://www.wmc.org.uk/en/whats-on/2025/the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe