By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com
When the curtain opens at Basile Westfield Playhouse this week and next, you will have left Hamilton County behind. You will instead spend the evening in Narnia thanks to the Main Street Productions’ (MSP) summer youth production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
MSP Director Brandi Davis told The Reporter she has wanted to direct this play for many years and now, with a cast of 28, she is getting her chance to bring a C.S. Lewis classic to Hamilton County audiences.
For the benefit of those few readers not familiar with The Chronicles of Narnia novel series, Davis was kind enough to summarize the story more succinctly that this writer would have been able to.
“Four children are staying at their uncle’s house,” Davis said. “They discover a wardrobe that is a secret passageway to a different world. They go through and they have to fight the evil witch to save the whole land.”
Narnia awaits at Basile Westfield Playhouse, 220 N. Union St., Westfield. (Reporter photo)
Although it is in the title, in this production there is no wardrobe.
“The script actually doesn’t have them travel through the wardrobe,” Davis said. “That’s all done off stage.”
One initial scene that would technically take place in our world is being used, but the wardrobe itself is an offstage element.
“There is an initial scene when they’re first at the mansion that’s two pages of the script that technically would be in our world,” Davis said. “It’s sort of a prologue. It’s even optional in the script that we chose to leave in. But then every single other element of the script takes place in Narnia.”
According to MSP, this dramatization of C.S. Lewis’ classic work faithfully recreates the magic and mystery of Aslan, the great lion, his struggle with the White Witch, and the adventures of four children who inadvertently wander from an old wardrobe into the exciting, never-to-be-forgotten Narnia. The intense action features chases, duels, and escapes as the witch is determined to keep Narnia in her possession and to end the reign of Aslan.
Whether you have often wandered the lands of Narnia in the pages of Lewis’ books, through the 1979 animated movie, the 1988 British television series, the 2005 Hollywood movie, or even if you have no clue what we are talking about, this MSP production offers entertainment for audiences of all ages who could use a little magic in their lives.
“I think it’s more important for readers to recognize that coming out and supporting a youth show is also supporting the future of theater and the arts,” Davis told The Reporter.
You can come support the next generation of performers from July 18 to 28 at Basile Westfield Playhouse, 220 N. Union St., Westfield. Go to BasileWestfieldPlayhouse.org or call (317) 402-3341 for tickets.
