The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Synopsis

A dazzling and dramatic retelling of C.S. Lewis’ classic The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe  opens in the historic grounds of Kensington Gardens this summer. In a unique collaboration this major new production is adapted by award-winning director Rupert Goold, staged in The Threesixty Theatre, that gained international acclaim for it's first production, Peter Pan, and directed by Goold and Michael Fentiman.

Four siblings, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, discover the magical world of Narnia when they pass through a mysterious wardrobe door. Ruled by the White Witch who has cast a spell making it forever winter, the children together with new found friends battle to bring happiness to the land in this classic tale of good versus evil.

The state of the art Threesixty Theatre Tent will use ground-breaking surround video and enchanting puppetry to bring to life the magic of Narnia in one of the world’s best-loved stories.

Rupert Goold is Artistic Director of Headlong Theatre and an Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Productions for Headlong include Earthquakes in London, ENRON (2009 Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Director), King Lear, Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Rough Crossings, Faustus, Restoration and Paradise Lost. Other work as a director includes The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet (RSC), Time and the Conways (National), Oliver! (West End) and No Man's Land (Gate Theatre, Dublin/West End - Irish Times Award Best Director) . His Macbeth, with Patrick Stewart transferred from Chichester Festival Theatre to the West End in 2007, then to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York and finally to Broadway, finishing in May 2008. He was awarded the 2007 Evening Standard, Critics’ Circle and Olivier Awards for Best Director and the film based on the production was broadcast on the BBC in December 2010.

Michael Fentiman is currently Artistic Director of Beggars And Kings Theatre Company. His forthcoming productions include Titus Andronicus (RSC/Headlong) and The Light In The Piazza.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 30 May 2012

The big white circular tent has returned to Kensington Gardens and, three years after hosting a thrilling Peter Pan, now removes us to Narnia and the full panoply of C S Lewis’s children’s classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Although there is an element of circus in the adaptation by Rupert Goold and his co-director Michael Fentiman – stilts, flying, puppetry, bungee jumps and woodland animals – the show, designed by Tom Scutt, avoids all Cirque du Soleil aesthetics of rippling silk.

There’s a gnarled and twisted darkness about the adventures on the other side of the wardrobe, where Sally Dexter’s tremendous White Witch – part jinn, part giantess, but also a cackling vamp – rules the roost in a frozen waste where it is always winter but never Christmas.

It’s a very clever trick, but you do feel that the four children evacuated from wart...

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Latest User Review

Eva - 23 August 2012:

I've seen it twice already and I am thinking of going again! I am not theatre lover but this was spectacular. I just do not understand how you can not love that! Pure magic. ...

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