A magical, musical Christmas show adapted by Andrew Alty from C.S. Lewis’ famous children’s classic.
The mysterious, snowy land that lies beyond the back of the wardrobe is a world of endless winter. Lucy and Edmond are led into an adventure which builds into a breathtaking struggle between the forces of good and evil.
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe also toured the UK.
You can access the script of this play via the British Library’s MPS Modern Playscripts Collection.
Jacquetta May is an actor who performed with Half Moon Theatre’s young people’s company in the mid-1980s. She talks about performing The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in the main house. Interviewed by Toni Tsaera.
In April 1983, when I joined the Half Moon, the first company meeting I attended included a discussion about what the larger Half Moon company would produce for Christmas. The Artistic Director at the time, Rob Walker, was on his way out and seemed exhausted. He had achieved great things for the company in the previous years, gaining national recognition for its productions, which included a couple of West End transfers. But now, he seemed no longer interested. Our company meetings then were collective affairs and Rob opened the floor for suggestions for the Christmas show. He was met with silence. I was a little surprised, and nervously piped up with the only Christmas show I knew at the time, Ken Campbell’s Old King Cole, which I had performed in the previous Christmas for Bush Telegraph in Bristol. To my further surprise, no one came up with any other ideas and my one was agreed. I had only wanted to get a discussion started, so I then suggested we sit on it for a week and see if anyone came up with any other suggestions. My colleague Andy Alty was keen to adapt The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and he put this forward at the next meeting, and that’s what we did. The show was popular and Andy’s script was also taken up a year or two later by the Glasgow Citizen’s Theatre.
You can read more memories from Matthew here.