`Lion' Comes To Life, But It Has Limitations

Theater review "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by C.S. Lewis, adapted by Joseph Robinette. Directed by Jeffrey Kagan-McCann. J! Productions, Book-It Repertory, 1219 Westlake Ave. N, Suite 301. Fridays-Sundays through Aug. 23. 206-382-3035.

This dramatization of C.S. Lewis' first "Chronicle of Narnia" is a favorite of children's theater groups around the country. Ten years ago director Jeffrey Kagan-McCann worked (as production manager) on another incarnation of it, and vowed then to do his own, "with a more contemporary feel."

This is an intriguing idea, though the updating is limited to nonverbal elements of the production, and is at best a qualified success. Joseph Robinette's script does little to change either the fantastical, almost Tolkein-like flavor of Lewis' language or the mid-century, upper-middle class Englishness of his childish protagonists. These facts set the work, as if in amber.

Updates work best

Oddly it's the most daring updates that work best, especially ogres that are kitted out in leather and studs, right out of a "mild S&M" Personals ad. The modern rock and folk music works well in the battle scenes, but it's intrusive - and it makes you wonder, irrelevantly, which decade the children have entered Narnia from.

Wisely, Kagan-McCann and costume designer Arita Vernon have steered away from boxy masks for the animal characters. Troy M. Burke makes Aslan leonine with nothing more than a shaggy beard.

Matt A. Williams makes Fenris Ulf into a wolf with nothing more than a gray cape and a nasty stare.

But acting at being a child is one of the hardest tricks for an adult to pull off, and here it is only gestured at by Justin Arnold as Peter, Karen Lockwood as Susan, Ben Lehman as the "traitor" Edmund, and Deanne England as Lucy. The result is that the action lacks the pace, the breathlessness, that it needs, and seems to condescend to the story.

Moves to different medium

Perhaps even the best child actors would have made little difference. For all the script's strict faithfulness to Lewis' words, it transfers them to a different medium, in which Narnia is presented to us too literally. For us, as for the children, Narnia needs to happen in our imaginations.

Most of Lewis' readers never realized they were having Christian allegory poured down their throats. The stage version makes the true identity of Aslan and Jadis (Heather M. Mueller) more obvious, but children quite innocent of theology can still enjoy it as a fantasy about good and evil.