Wardrobe tale as old as time

THROUGH THE WARDROBE: From left, Tim Donnell plays Father Christmas, Josiah Goddard is Peter, Sile Sneddon and Emma Fuchs are Mr and Mrs Beaver, Ezria Goddard is Susan and Piper Vroon plays Lucy in the Gisborne Homeschool Performing Arts Group’s production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Picture supplied

The magic of C S Lewis’s fantasy novel, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is about to be brought to the stage by the Gisborne Homeschool Performing Arts group.

“The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a timeless tale that doesn’t get old,” says director Aimee Goddard.

“It is still the most read children’s book in England, and Netflix is making a series of the Chronicles. This story offers themes of honesty, forgiveness, redemption, and a good dose of imagination and adventure. You can’t go wrong with that.”

In the children’s story Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie have been evacuated during the Blitz to an old professor’s house in the countryside. While exploring the house Lucy enters a wardrobe and finds herself in a snowy wooded area where a faun called Tumnus tells her she is in the land of Narnia. When she later re-enters the wardrobe and returns to her own world she finds only a few seconds have passed there during her absence. Initially none of her siblings believe her story about Narnia — the back of the wardrobe appears solid — but when Lucy goes back through the wardrobe into Narnia again Edmund follows her and encounters the White Witch. The witch bribes the boy with the promise of Turkish Delight to bring his brother and sisters to her house.

All four children eventually enter Narnia together and surreal adventures that involve Mr Beaver, a talking animal, a prophecy about the White Witch’s tyranny ensue, a regal lion called Aslan, Father Christmas and the Witch’s enforcer, the wolf Maugri, Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time and a coronation.

When they return from their adventures, they are children again and no time has passed since their departure.

Theatre involves creativity, teamwork and fun, says Goddard. To help the young actors develop their characters she, or another parent, would begin class with reading a chapter from the book.

“We would discuss comprehension afterwards. This time together gave us depth and understanding of the characters we would be portraying.”

Goddard included drama games and warm-ups geared towards character exploration.

“For example, the White Witch would sit in a chair and be asked questions by the other students like ‘what is your favourite colour? What do you do for fun?’ and so on.”

While the set design is a collaborative effort this year, and includes Jason Akuhata-Brown on creation of the wardrobe and Dan Bevans on sleigh-making, Megan Daniels is putting together the costumes.

“I’ve loved the challenge of working on the costumes. Narnia is full of amazing creatures and it has been fun working with other parents and children to bring their characters to life.”

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, presented by the Gisborne Homeschool Performing Arts group, War Memorial Theatre, Friday November 1, 6pm; Saturday November 2, 6pm; Sunday November 3, 2 pm. Tickets available from the Lawson Field Theatre, Mon-Fri, noon-5pm, Ticketek and at the door. Children $10. adults $15.