KATAYOUN SHAHANDEH surveys Iran’s cultural heritage and explains what has been damaged and what could be lost
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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
[Brinkhoff-Moegenburg]
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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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![CS Lewis in 1947 [Pic: Scan of photograph by Arthur Strong]](https://msd11.gn.apc.org/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2025-04/Untitled-1.jpg.webp?itok=2jzsrA-s)
After a ruinous run at Tolkien, the streaming platforms are moving on to Narnia — a naff mix of religious allegory, colonial attitudes, and thinly veiled prejudices that is beyond rescuing, writes STEPHEN ARNELL