Amazing Perse actors bring magic of Narnia to the stage

Perse Lower School actors took audiences on a trip to the magical land of Narnia in their gripping production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Across six packed-out shows in the Peter Hall Performing Arts Centre (PAC), they performed Glyn Robbins’ stage adaptation of the classic C.S. Lewis novel, which sees siblings Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter enter a wardrobe leading into Narnia. It follows their subsequent adventures as they meet Aslan the lion and the White Witch.

Such was the level of interest from Year 7 and 8 pupils, it was the first time a Perse production of any kind had been triple cast, with Perse Director of Theatre David Barrett, drama teacher Jonathan Black and PAC operations assistant Elly Trent each directing a cast.

Mr Barrett said: “We just thought we needed to add a third cast because we’ve got so much talent and we wanted everyone to be involved.

“We wanted the actors to have a meaningful experience and by triple casting, this meant we had around 50 pupils with speaking roles.

“Our view with sectional shows is we want them to be inclusive. For those taking part, we want them to have a great experience and want them to come back and pursue drama throughout their time at the school.

“The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe has lots of good roles for different people and I was looking to do something with younger pupils that had fun and fantasy and was a bit larger than life. Something they were going to enjoy doing and audiences were going to enjoy watching was also key.”

An intense programme of three back-to-back matinee performances, featuring each cast, rounded off the run of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Mr Barrett said: “There was such an energy and a real camaraderie with everyone pulling for each other. The whole feeling around the PAC was really buzzy and everyone had a great time.”