'It's a spectacle - but it's also got a beautiful heart'

RTÉ News​

01-05-2025

Stanton Wright stars as the mighty Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He talks to RTÉ Entertainment's John Byrne about the show as it heads to Dublin.
The latest West End smash-hit production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is on tour and stops off at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre from May 6-10.
It's based – of course - on C S Lewis' iconic children's book about a group of siblings who walk through a wardrobe into a magical kingdom.
Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are evacuated from London in 1940, to escape the World War II Blitz, and sent to live with Professor Digory Kirke at a large house in the English countryside.
While exploring the house, Lucy enters a wardrobe and discovers the magical world of Narnia.
Directed by Michael Fentiman and based on the original production by Sally Cookson, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was first performed at Leeds Playhouse in 2017, before transferring to London's Bridge Theatre, embarking on a tour across the UK and to Ireland, as well as running in the West End.
Katy Stephens plays the White Witch (and Mrs Macready), alongside Joanna Adaran (as Susan), Jesse Dunbar (as Peter), Kudzai Mangombe (as Lucy), Bunmi Osadolor (as Edmund) and Stanton Wright (as Aslan).
Aslan is no stranger to Irish audiences, given that one of our most popular rock bands - once fronted by the late, great Christy Dignam - got their name from CS Lewis's talking lion.
So, who better to talk to about the show than Stanton Wright, who plays Aslan?
John Byrne: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe 's been around since the Narnia books were published in the 1950s and the story's remained hugely popular – what would you put that down to?
Stanton Wright: I think there's a few things. It was one of the earliest fantasy stories that was widely accepted by a really big age group – younger to older people.
I think it also speaks a lot to people, because it has a general sense of hope, and believing in things that you might not be able to see just yet. Knowing there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Getting through hard times.
And the children, at the beginning of the story they're evacuees from World War Two. So there's that sense of escape from a harsh reality. But then they're also coming together and using imagination and things like that, to kind of escape and overcome things.
We all need to be cheered up – there's always some reality we want to escape from, a reason to be cheered-up. A need to be entertained.
This is the thing. With stories like this, they always need to be told. There's always some relevance, no matter what time it is in history. Even if it was something like when we were all in lockdown and getting through that.
Even if it's something as simple as children been taken away from their normal homes – there are lots of things to identify with in . So I think people find a lot of strength in stories like this.
The show is very fast-paced and must be quite a challenge for the cast. Can you give us a flavour of what an audience can expect?
Honestly, I think there's almost every element of theatre in this production. We have live music, actor/musicians, we play live music on stage. There's singing and dancing.
The set is incredible. We have flying. We have magic. We have puppetry. Obviously, we have animals. I'm the lion himself. There's so much thrown into the production.
It all comes together in this beautiful and soulful story. It's a spectacle - but it's got a beautiful heart. It's a great night out.
People who know this story will love it. People who don't know it, will fall in love with the story.
We've been really looking forward to coming to Ireland, because the music in the show has a lovely, grassroots/folk element to it. We have violin, cello, whistle, accordion, guitar – things like that. So people can look forard to that.
Are you musical yourself?
Yeah. As well as playing Aslan – he doesn't rock up until about halfway through the story – so I play guitar, bass guitar and a bit of percussion in this particular show.
There's about ten of us that also play an instrument, that form up the musicians.
All of us on stage, we never have a moment's rest backstage. If we're not doing a quick change, we're probably singing or playing. It's very, very busy – and lots of fun.
After the show I meet people, and half the time they don't recognise who I was and they certainly wouldn't think that we all play several different characters. But that's the nature of it – it's a proper ensemble piece.
There's no one waiting in their dressing room with a cup of tea, waiting to go on stage.
Have you played in Dublin before now or will this be your first time?
Yes, I have. I was there just over a year ago, at The Gaiety Theatre. I did The Kite Runner, which was based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini. I had an amazing time.
I've been there a couple of times, actually. I had a brilliant time, so we're all really looking forward to Dublin. I've never been to the Bord Gáis Theatre before, so I'm really excited about that.
We've heard lots of good things from people that have performed there before, so everyone's looking forward to it. It's a great building.
As you may know, with a lot of the old theatres, they may look beautiful on the outside, but as soon as you go backstage to the dressing rooms, they can be falling apart.
And after Dublin, the tour returns to the UK and you're going to on the road until the New Year, basically.
Yeah, it's a long, long job. We started back in November, and we were in Leeds over Christmas, and we're in a different city or town every week. Right up until January.
It's great though. For us freelance performers, it's nice to have that employment for a long time! But it also has its own challenges – doing the same thing eight times a week for the whole year.
So it's about making sure that it's fresh every time. And you have to remember that, for most people in the audience, it's the first time they've ever seen it. So you have to make sure it feels like it's brand new.