The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Lovely to see a lot of excited children on the edge of their seats as they enjoyed CS Lewis’s timeless classic at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow.

With all of today’s fabulous fast-moving animation, sparking imagination in a magical way is no easy task.

But the stage show of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is simply spell-bounding and brilliant and a joy for all the family.

It sticks to the original storyline we all remember so well. The stage production marks the 75^th anniversary of the original publication of the tale which sees siblings Peter, Susan, Lucy and Edmund arrive as wartime evacuees to the mysterious house of The Professor (played with fun by Kraig Thornber).

One slight twist for the Scottish audience from the original is the evacuation is to deepest, darkest Aberdeen and the children are greeted at the railway station by eccentric housekeeper Mrs Macready (Katy Stephens), dressed all in tweed and keen to serve kippers!

As they explore the house, Lucy spots a wardrobe and as she looks to see what is inside, she is transported through to the magical land of Narnia, which is full of good and evil.

To modernise the tale, original producer Sally Cookson concentrated on the set and scenery, and the result is a full on show which is bursting with energy, music and puppetry.

The cast multi-tasks from swopping roles to changing the scenery and the well-drilled but quite dark show is intriguing as well as wee bit scary.

In short, it allows the imagination to bubble and there’s never a dull moment. It was great to see lots of young faces in the audience who were transfixed as to what was going on.

Excellent acting from Jesse Dunbar (Peter), Joanna Adaran (Susan), Kudzai Mangombe (Lucy), Bunmi Osadolor (Edmund), who clearly enjoy their roles as the young explorers who meet loveable Mr Tumnus, half human, half goat and played beautifully by Alfie Richards.

He introduces them to a kind world of beavers (Anya de Villiers and Ed Thorpe), squirrels (Joe Keenan), badgers (Alfie Richards) and hedgehogs (Stanton Wright) and all is tickety-boo until they enter the dark world of the white witch (played by the excellent Katy Stephens) thanks to Edmund giving into temptation and being dragged from good to bad.

Luckily for them, in steps the lion Aslan (Stanton Wright) who is half human, half puppet, thanks to the excellent Rhodri Watkins and he saves the day. The puppets, which include a cat with a love of kippers are a wonderful way of bringing the story alive along with the set and costumes by Tom Paris, music directed by Ben Goddard Young and overall direction from Michael Fentiman.

C.S. Lewis’s book was first published in October 1950 and since then, more than 85 million copies in 60 languages have been sold and it is one of the top 10 bestselling books of all time.

The stage show, which also enjoyed a hugely successful and critically acclaimed London run in 2023 is modern and slick, but importantly it is a true reflection of the brilliance of C.S. Lewis’s own imagination which magically still fires up the young and old today. Fabulous stuff!

Playing in Glasgow until 14^th June, the show then moves to Aberdeen, from 17^th to 21^st June, Inverness, 24^th to 28^th June, Norwich, 8^th to 12^th July, Canterbury, 15^th to 19^th July, Milton Keynes, 22^nd to 26^th July, Blackpool, 29^th July to 2^nd August, Llandudno from 5^th to 9^th August and Eastbourne from 12^th to 16^th August.

The show then heads to Bristol from 16^th to 20^th September, Bradford, 23^rd to 27^th September, Hull from 30^th September to 4^th October, Aylesbury, 7^th to 11^th October, Sheffield, 14^th to 18^th October, Wolverhampton, 28^th October to 1^st November, then Nottingham from 4^th to 8^th November, Sunderland, 11^th to 15^th November, Southampton, 18^th to 22^nd November, Plymouth, 25^th to 19^th November, before rounding off the tour at The Lowry in Salford from 3^rd December 2025 to 11^th January 2026.

For show times and ticket availability to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, please visit: www.atgtickets.com and www.lionwitchonstage.com.

Author Bio:

Rebecca Hay is an experienced travel writer and member of The British Guild of Travel Writers. Follow her adventures with her family on Twitter and Instagram @emojiadventurer and on Facebook via EmojiAdventurers2.

Photographs by Brinkhoff-Moegenburg