The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Onstage in Washington, D.C.

I didn’t think C.S. Lewis’ fantasy world of Narnia would smell like pumpkin spice, but that was the scent wafting from fog machines in the Logos Theatre’s production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe staged at the Museum of the Bible’s World Stage Theater in Washington, D.C.

The aroma fits the story—sweet, strange, and alluring. On the whole, it’s an apt metaphor for this nearly three-hour stage adaptation, which runs through April 19.

Logos wows with its tightly scripted scenes, thoughtful set design, and an impressive array of animal puppets. Most notable is a life-sized lion that requires three men to operate.

The play remains faithful to Lewis’ children’s tale as Christian allegory. For the uninitiated, the title says it all. Four British children travel to a mysterious land through a wardrobe. There, they find themselves caught up in a war between a witch who keeps Narnia’s thermostat in eternal winter and Aslan, a noble, selfless lion who can literally breathe new life into the land. When one of the children falls prey to the witch’s temptations, it’s the lion who saves him. The fact that Aslan sounds like Jesus shouldn’t be lost on anyone.

If this stage play could be faulted for anything, it’s that it might overdo this Aslan-as-Jesus parallel. While all the other actors speak naturally, Aslan sounds almost too deep, too wise, and too distant to be embraced as the loving King of Narnia. But perhaps that’s the point. The puppet is voiced by the late Nicky Chavers, the founder of the Logos Theatre’s parent company. Chavers recorded all seven books in the Chronicles of Narnia series before he died in 2021.

Parents of young children should be cautioned that the stage play contains loud sword fights, a few angry outbursts, and a dark scene of ritual sacrifice that they won’t truly understand.