Prime Stage offers charming Narnia adventure

By Alice T. Carter
TRIBUNE-REVIEW THEATER CRITIC
Thursday, December 20, 2001

Staging a revered children's classic such as "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" provides risks as well as rewards.

Many adults and youngsters have read the 50-year-old C.S. Lewis classic. Others have been exposed to it through one of several filmed versions shown on TV.

Familiarity breeds expectations. Many arrive expecting Narnia, its inhabitants or whichever of the child adventurers they identified with to look the way they imagined or previously experienced them. They can be disappointed when expectations raised by TV or film versions can't be duplicated on the live stage.

But those who condition themselves and their small companions to appreciate that stage performances contain rewards that prerecorded versions cannot will find much to enjoy in Prime Stage Theatre's production.

"The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" is the second of the adventures in Lewis' seven-part "Chronicles of Narnia." In it, four children are sent to live with a professor in the English countryside to escape the bombs falling on London during World War II.

They discover a wardrobe that serves as a fantastic entry door into the world of Narnia, which is ruled by an evil White Witch. The witch has frozen Narnia into a perpetual world of ice and snow where it's always winter, but Christmas never comes. After undergoing a series of trials and battles, the children vanquish the witch, set the deserving lion Aslan on the throne and return spring to Narnia.

Most of the ice and snow melt during intermission. Nevertheless, set designer Paula Grittie and lighting designer Michael Jehle have created imaginative but subtle touches that allow Narnia's thaw to begin gently and almost magically before the eyes of the audience.

Joseph Robinette's dramatization weakens the action. His long narrative passages take too long to tell us far more than we need to know.

The result is that the looked-for battles between good and evil seem perfunctory and rushed. This diminishes the sense of obstacles surmounted or victories won through perseverance or bravery.

Shelby Wyzykowski's tepidly crabby White Witch never demonstrates chilling menace. Conversely, the double-cast Bryan W. Bessor's Professor appears not remote and preoccupied as you might expect, but as warm and welcoming as his Father Christmas.

Nadia Cook-Loshilov is adorably plucky as Lucy, the youngest of the four children and the first discoverer of Narnia. But with a 90-minute running time, neither she nor Susan (Sarah Perconte), Edmund (Justin Trop) and Peter (Brett Hahalyak) have opportunity to blossom as an individual character.

But director Audrey Castracane and choreographer Shaun J. Rolly keep interest high with zoomorphic animals, dwarves, fauns and elves that appear and disappear throughout the story and behave in interesting and appropriate ways. Most notable are Kathy Jehle's graceful White Hart, Severin Fjelstad's scary and evil Fenris Ulf, T.C. Brown's nervous Mr. Tumnus, the adorably homey Mr. and Mrs. Beaver (Terry Sheldon and Ellen Rodwick) and Dale Irvin's solidly noble Aslan.

Those who have visited Narnia previously might find this an interesting alternative view. Others, after seeing this production, might be intrigued enough to seek out the books for an extended visit.

That could hold them until February, when Saltworks Theatre Company will be host for a touring production of "The Magician's Nephew," the sixth tale in the seven-story series.