The Theatre Centre brings C.S. Lewis to life
One of the most powerful stories of imagination for children—and adults too—is the magical tale of four siblings who step through a wardrobe and journey into another universe where they fight the ultimate battle of good and evil, all while meeting talking animals, learning secrets, and more.
If you hadn’t guessed, I’m talking about “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, which the Chattanooga Theatre Centre is bringing to life on stage beginning this Friday night at 7 p.m.
“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is a fantasy novel written by C.S. Lewis and was published in 1950. It’s the first and most well-known in a series of seven books making up “The Chronicles of Narnia”. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie are four siblings sent to live in a mansion in the English countryside during the WWII evacuations.
After discovering a secret passage through a wardrobe, the children escape into Narnia where they help a heroic lion, Aslan, defeat the White Witch and restore the permanently frozen Narnia to its former glory.
The stage version of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was adapted by playwright Joseph Robinette and first performed in 1989. The Chattanooga Theatre Centre’s production is directed by Chuck Tuttle and features a double cast of 44, meaning that 22 actors and actresses will be alternating performances.
“It’s an interesting show, but it does have its challenges. Theater is kind of a middle ground of [books and movies]. It’s very short and brief compared to a book that would take us hours and hours,” Tuttle explained. “This is kind of the good parts version. We’re hitting the highlights of how we tell the story and the playwright’s done most of that for us. The rest is us trying to figure out how we visually interpret that.”
In order to make the talking animals as lifelike as possible, the CTC’s production is going to utilize masks, headdresses, and puppetry. Aslan’s puppet even includes an eight-foot mane to make it that much more realistic.
While there are some high schoolers and adults in the show to represent the children growing up in Narnia, the youngest cast members are in third grade. An interesting feature of the CTC’s production is that many of the adults in the show are actually parents of the children so they share a resemblance to their younger counterparts.
To incorporate a little history into the performance, Tuttle added an introductory piece from the BBC to give a bit of backstory on what was happening in London at that time. The introduction features air raid sirens and oral sound that discusses the children leaving London.
“One of the reasons I wanted to start with a little bit about World War II was because it influenced this whole story. These kids get out of the city, and now they’re in another battle with good and evil? They’re saying to these children, you need to pick up a weapon and fight these things [in Narnia],” said Tuttle. “And so, going through two wars like that, you have to think of all the children that were sent to war which is why I wanted to start with that.”
Although this show does have an incredibly large cast, Tuttle explained they’ve all been extremely dedicated, especially the younger children who really want to wow the audience. Jaxson Rogers, who plays young Edmund, and his father Randy Rogers, who plays adult Edmund (and adult Peter in alternating shows), have been practicing together to prepare for opening night.
“When [Jaxson] first started running lines, I said, ‘Okay, Jaxson, I’ve done this. This is work. There are people depending on you.’ I’ve kind of helped him with how to run lines and the best ways to memorize lines. But he’s done really well, I’m really proud of him,” said Randy, who has theater experience from high school.
It was actually Jaxson’s theater teacher at Hixson Middle School who gave him the idea to audition. Although this is Jaxson’s first performance, he did such a stellar job with auditions that he was cast for the character he really wanted, Edmund.
“We’re like one big family [at the CTC]. We’ve spent so much time together. We’ll just be hanging out in the lobby waiting for Chuck to come and we’ll be running over lines, talking, having fun, joking around. But when we go into that rehearsal room, it’s straightforward,” Jaxson said. “As soon as we start rehearsals, our characters just turn on and it’s hard to turn it off.”
The Theatre Centre’s production of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” opens at 7p.m. this Friday. It runs through March 1st, with evening and matinee shows on opening weekend and 2:30 p.m. matinee shows the following weekends, as to accommodate school performances they have scheduled the week of February 24th.
If you’ve ever wanted to travel into a different world and experience the magic of Narnia alongside the Pevensie siblings, then you definitely don’t want to miss the Theatre Centre’s remarkable performance of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”.