ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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Narnia monotony
SUSAN DARLINGTON is unmoved by a production full of spectacular tableax but without emotional connection to the characters
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Leeds Playhouse
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe
Leeds Playhouse
FOR a novel that’s about good and evil, Michael Fentiman’s production of CS Lewis’s 1950 children’s classic is curiously monochromatic.
Casting the stage in long shadows makes sense during the opening scenes, when the four Pevensie children are being evacuated during WWII. Reflecting national fear and uncertainty, we see them boarding a miniature stream train that’s borne aloft by a chorus of hands, unsure if or when they’ll ever see their parents again.
The dark lighting makes less sense when the children arrive at a house in the country and are transported to Narnia through a wardrobe. The colour palette here makes the land feel anything but magical, despite the presence of talking animals and the state of perpetual winter.
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