REVIEW: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe is ingeniously adapted onstage

The hit London show has a limited run in Ireland this week.

Between the 1950 book, multiple TV adaptations and the popular 2005 movie (and its two sequels), you might think that there was no new way to tell the story of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. However, the stage adaptation which arrives in Ireland this week brings a level of incredibly ingenuity and stellar performances to make it stand out as arguably the key telling of this much-loved tale. The story is the same as before: four siblings are evacuated from London during the height of WWII, moving into a large countryside estate owned by a kooky professor. While there, they discover a secret portal in the back of a wardrobe which gives them access to the magical world of Narnia, currently in the depths of its own war with the White Witch, who has covered the land in a permanent winter. The rebelling locals are awaiting the return of Aslan, the rightful king of Narnia, with his prophecy directly tied into the appearance of "two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve", so the four siblings find themselves at the forefront of this fantastical battle. The stage adaptation of the story is very faithful to the original text, but it is the details of how it tells the story that will live long in the memory. Suitcases double-up as illuminated train carriages, the War Horse-esque portrayal of Aslan is matched to a ever-present actor (Chris Jared) to help humanise the great lion, a hypnotic dance sequence involves sentient Turkish Delight. All of it is so cleverly presented and performed that you are successfully transported to this other world in a way that bigger, more expensive productions could only dream of. This intelligent storytelling is paired with some fantastic performances from a brilliantly diverse cast, including Samantha Womack who is brilliantly scary as The White Witch, Shaka Kalakoh giving us a suitably shady Edmund Pensevie, Michael Ahmoka Lindsay showcasing real physicality as hench-wolf Maugrim, and Karise Yansen bringing "the light" of Lucy without teetering over the edge into cloying. As expected, the whole production does skew towards "family-friendly", but grown-ups returning to the story here - or perhaps only experience it for the first time - will likely uncover subtle depths and clever parallels that will likely go over the heads of the younger audience members who are there to enjoy the talking beavers and the arrival of Father Christmas. The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe has a limited run in the Bord Gáis Theatre in Dublin until Saturday, 19 March. Tickets for the show are available here. Images via Bord Gais Theatre