The story has been hardwired into the national consciousness. But the team behind the new stage production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe claim a live performance can still bring a touch of magic to CS Lewis’s classic story.
Jonny Weldon, 18, who plays Edmund, said: “Everyone knows the story. But here in Hyde Park I think the audience can experience something very new.”
The audience appeared to agree. Nicole Thorn, 35, a writer from Hackney, said she was spellbound. “At one point the trees came out on stilts ... It was magical.”
Karl Mason, of Brentwood, said his children, Cormac, 10, and Artie, 12, loved it: “It’s just brilliant to come straight off Kensington High Street and into Narnia.”
The show is helping raise money for the Evening Standard’s Get London Reading campaign, with a percentage of the price of all tickets sold through the newspaper going towards the drive to boost literacy.