Charming! Magical! Uplifting!
Perhaps it’s the seasonal time of the year, but I can’t help but have all the ‘feels’ on the inside after seeing Bad Hats Theatre’s Narnia.
With skillful adaptation by Fiona Sauder, C. S. Lewis’s iconic children’s story (The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe) breathes a revived life that Sauder calls in her Director’s Note: “a love letter …for the guardians, mentors, teachers friends – those we find through circumstance or luck, who bloom into our community and alter the ways we see our world.” That line strikes a comforting, personal chord for me, especially at this both silent and celebratory time of year.
Four displaced siblings: Peter (Matthew Joseph), Susan (Sierra Haynes), Edmund (Landon Doak), and Lucy (Belinda Corpuz) come to live on an English countryside estate with a kind, trustworthy, and warm professor (Astrid Van Wieren), who also serves as the narrator. What might inquisitive children do in a large house? They begin to explore and, in the process, discover the magical world of Narnia behind the wardrobe. To save Narnia from an eternal winter cast by the evil Witch (Amaka Umeh), the children join the Narnia inhabitants in their fight for freedom.
Sauder also directs the production with a charming and knowing wink to that childlike innocence that never leaves us, even as adults, thank goodness. Music Director Jonathan Corkal-Astorga carefully ensures the music and songs help push the story and plot forward. Sauder and co-choreographer Rohan Dhupar subtly underscore movement and motion to the music with grace, purpose, and reason. These four make many, many good choices with others from the creative team to ensure that all involved (including the performers) create a magical moment in the theatre.
What becomes enchanting is the ‘outside of the auditorium’ experience. When you walk into the Young Centre, look up, and you’ll see wardrobes hanging high above. Audience members have just immersed themselves in the world they are about to experience. The Young Centre’s festive-looking atrium beautifully sets the magic of the upcoming performance.
Sauder keeps the show’s pacing moving smoothly. The cast maneuvers set pieces like staircases, chairs, and tables with tremendous and graceful ease. Part of the fun is watching how the cast swoops items on and off with finesse. Shannon Lea Doyle’s attractive set of a grand English country home drawing room is warmly lit by Logan Raju Cracknell’s design. Andres Castillo-Smith’s sound balances well, allowing the audience to hear Landon Doak’s cleverly written lyrics clearly.
The acting is top-notch in this ten-member ensemble. Young children and adults sitting around me are glued to the on-stage action.
The show doesn’t start immediately on the hour. Instead, the performers arrive on stage, all enjoying each other’s company and having a great time, talking and laughing. There’s music. Eventually, several of the actors come out into the house, where they mingle and chat with the audience, welcoming them.
This clever technique works very well to open the show.
It’s busy outside in the Distillery District. If families are late arriving at the theatre, they won’t feel as if they are running behind. Sometimes it might take children a few minutes to settle in. This party-like pre-show allows parents to get their children settled before the story begins.
As matronly, all-knowing Professor, Astrid Van Wieren becomes a warm, guiding narrator for everyone, including the audience, in a world that can sometimes feel confusing. Van Wieren nobly embodies Aslan’s regal and authoritative presence. There’s a sense of controlled, grounded evil in Amaka Umeh’s Witch. Umeh never pulls focus while on stage, but one’s eye is inevitably drawn to observe what the Witch is doing during moments of silence as she watches the action unfold.
Matt Pilipiak and Jonathan Tam deliver delightfully campy performances as Tumnus and Beaver, respectively. There’s a strong sense of a personal, connective relationship between the two. Their Tumnus and Beaver have been together for a long time and will continue to care for each other, no matter what drama unfolds in Narnia.
Matthew Joseph, Sierra Haynes, Landon Doak, and Belinda Corpuz form a strong ensemble that genuinely listens, observes, and responds naturally to unfolding events. As they cross into Narnia from the wardrobe, I can’t help but smile. The four encourage and coax each other convincingly, just like curious children wondering who will step through first. They don’t act like adults playing children; instead, they convincingly become restless kids with unique personalities. It’s hard not to like these four. We cheer for them or empathize with their situation, especially in real-life moments that turn dark.
Bad Hats’ Narnia becomes a theatre gift that must be given, shared and received.
The smiles on everyone’s faces, from kids to adults, say it all.
Again, Sauder says in her Director’s Note that: “time [is a] gift to notice it, in all its brilliant, awkward, delightful uncertainty.”
Go and spend time in the theatre this Christmas and holiday season and see an excellent family show. Start that holiday tradition.
Running time: approximately 90 minutes with no interval/intermission.
The production runs to December 28 in the Baillie Theatre in the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 50 Tank House Lane in Toronto’s Distillery District. For tickets: soulpepper.ca, call (416) 866-8666 or email: boxoffice@youngcentre.ca
SOULPEPPER, BADS HATS AND CROW’S THEATRES present
Bad Hats Theatre’s Narnia
Based on The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
Adapted and directed by Fiona Sauder
Music and Lyrics by Landon Doak
Associate Direction and Dramaturgy by Matt Pilipiak
Creative Producer: Victor Pokinko
Set and Costume Design: Shannon Lea Doyle
Lighting Design: Logan Raju Cracknell
Sound Design: Andres Castillo-Smith
Stage Manager: Tara Mohan
Performers: Belinda Corpuz, James Daly, Landon Doak, Sierra Haynes, Matthew Novary Joseph, Matt Pilipiak, Jonathan Tam, Amaka Umeh, Astrid Van Wieren, Jonathan Corkal-Astorga
