The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
at Rock Ridge High School

Reviewed on November 15, 2014

Charlie Trochlil
Loudoun Valley High School
Submitted for publication to Washington Post - Loudoun

C.S. Lewis' allegorical fantasy The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe invites readers into a world full of enchanting landscapes and magical histories. Rock Ridge High School's production of the stage adaptation, written by Jim Robinette and carrying the same title, did a believable job of inviting its audience into the mystical realm of Narnia and all its conflicts. The play follows the adventure of four British children who, after being sent to live with a distant relative during the bombings of World War II, discover a portal to another world in the form of a great old wardrobe. The children stumble into Narnia, a land held in eternal winter by The White Witch, whose reign is eventually ended thanks to the children and an ancient prophecy foretelling their arrival.

With a world and a story as grand as Narnia, creating a suitable atmosphere for this piece was no small task, but Rock Ridge's technical crews created immersive and sincere settings through the many facets of their production. A two-story mansion provided differing levels allowing passionate inter-personal conflicts to play out between the siblings. The set transitioned flawlessly into the snowy forests of Narnia while a video of the children wading through the coats was projected onto the backdrop of the frozen birch forest. This video within the show coupled with the special effect of snow falling into the audience truly made it feel as though they were being transported into an entirely new world.

Once in Narnia, lights projected onto the deepest backdrop of the stage in order to create thematic and contextual settings on stage. The various colors were used to represent anger, to simulate bloodshed, to create the illusion of a sunrise, and to indicate Aslan's appearances. While the mics had occasional issues with levels and with going silent, the music selected by the sound crew did a good job of furthering the illusion of being in a different place than earth.

The high-fantasy characters came to life with accurate and aesthetically pleasing makeup and costumes. Incorporating elements of human dress and of fur, the Beavers costumes were especially pleasant to watch on stage. The combination of make-up, hair, and costume elements for Aslan and for all the other animals showed off the very wild beauty of nature that the Narnia series worked so hard to represent.

With their technical prowess, Rock Ridge succeeded in pulling their audience out of reality and into a world of magic and make-believe. All of the visual tech elements blended to breathe life into an immersive and beautiful fantasy worthy of the massive world C.S. Lewis created through his books.

Ben Radomsky
Dominion High School
Submitted for publication to Washington Post - Loudoun

Readers worldwide have been entranced by The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe's spell for over half a century and theatre audiences for three decades. Rock Ridge High School, however, has only been open two months, has no senior class, but is already producing a show of such quality and excitement that one would think they had been at it for years.

C.S. Lewis began writing The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe on the arrival of three young schoolgirls at his country home at the onset of World War II. It was first published in 1950, and despite its early lack of popularity, it has since achieved classic literary status. The novel was first adapted for the stage in 1984, in London, and a major cinematic adaption was released in 2005.

Rock Ridge High School's adaptation is a fairly straightforward one, with one of two bursts of creativity being seen each time the children enter Narnia through the wardrobe. Their journey was conveyed via pre-taped video recordings, which were directed, edited, and produced by students. The other burst comes once they have entered Narnia as manufactured
"snow" trickles down upon the audience leading us into the magical world alongside the characters.

The production's set is a two-tiered masterpiece, one side being the Professor's country home and the other being the vast tree trunks of Narnia, its only downside being the fact that it was occasionally askew. It was constructed by one of the school's theatre classes. The lighting was also a highlight of the show, coordinated by students Hannah Kane and Mansi Deorah, and occasionally shifting from mellow green to alarming red to punctuate the White Witch's frightening shifts of emotion. Gorgeous silhouettes were also utilized and were the highlight of an otherwise cluttered battle scene.

With no senior class, and the junior class only a third of the normal size, the cast consisted mainly of underclassmen, and they performed admirably. The highlights of the supporting cast were Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, played by Sophomores Kevin Lacey and Jessica Howard, who both offered comic relief. The two also utilized their stance and facial expressions to do a magnificent job of staying in character when they had no lines.

As for the leads, the standouts were the White Witch, played by Junior Lucky Vemuri, and Edmund, played by Sophomore Seth Cooper. Vemuri would often transition between a calm and threatening tone of voice in order to express the Witch's cruel and frightening nature, always doing so seamlessly. The excellent costume design of the production, spearheaded by Hailey Brunson, could also be seen quite clearly via the White Witch. Cooper, as Edmund, demonstrated the vivaciousness and "brattiness" that is needed in order to understand his character's actions throughout the play. He did a great job of displaying his character's development towards the end of the production and was fantastic at conveying his character's personality when he had no lines.

Despite a few minor qualms and a few distracting excursions into the audience, Rock Ridge's first production was a magnificent sight to behold. The only issues most likely stemmed from a lack of experience, so this school could very well be a force to be reckoned with in the years to come. They are definitely ones to look out for.

Keely Greene
Falls Church High School
Submitted for publication to Patch.com - Loudoun

Snow drifts from above, wood nymphs float ethereally across the stage, and transport the audience from a high school auditorium to the mythical world of Narnia. With sagely woodland creatures and an icy evil queen, Rock Ridge High School's recent performance of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe brought viewers into a magical new world.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, based on the 1950 book by C.S. Lewis, features four siblings--Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy--who are sent to live with a zany Professor to escape wartime bombings of their home in London. Lucy, the youngest, discovers a wardrobe in the Professor's home. Curiosity piqued, she enters, only to discover Narnia, a mythical world. In this world she meets creatures like wood nymphs and Tumnus, a faun. Tumnus tells Lucy about Narnia's plight under the rule of an evil queen, and Lucy discovers a prophecy that four human siblings--herself, Peter, Susan and Edmund--were meant to restore Narnia to its former glory under the rule of Aslan. The play chronicles the siblings'adventures on the road to saving Narnia.

Standout performers included Edmund (Seth Cooper), who seamlessly portrayed an annoying child through his impatient mannerisms and childish smirks. His transition from cocky to terrified in the queen's grasp was evident through his stiff, closed-off physicality and horrified facial expressions while being dragged across the stage by the queen's wand. Lucy (Abbie Khuu) embodied a strong-willed child nicely, and her tenderness came through in interactions with her siblings and Tumnus (Noam Denenberg). Her mannerisms, like playing with her hair and clinging to Susan (Nina Rivera) when frightened, helped portrait her as a small child. Despite acting that occasionally lacked the proper emotion or motion, the entire cast portrayed the magic and bond of all the creatures in Narnia admirably.

Rock Ridge's Narnia was technically magnificent. Clever touches like soap bubbles falling as snow and lighting that created the illusion of trees created a magical atmosphere. Lighting technicians Hannah Kane and Mansi Deorah altered the color and harshness of lighting to reflect the feeling of the scene and the characters' emotions. Gorgeous costumes transformed high school students into unlikely characters: an elderly beaver couple, the faun Tumnus, and the graceful wood nyphms brought Narnia to life.

Overall, Rock Ridge's production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe succeeded in transporting an entire audience to a new existence of unbelievable things--and made them feel real. Curl up with a mug of hot chocolate in the audience, wait for the snow to fall, and before you know it, you'll be there--in Narnia.