14/08/2026
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is brought to life
By Louise Follett
Whanganui Collegiate School are preparing to take an audience to another world this month, staging the first of C S Lewis’s classic Narnia tales, ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’, adapted for stage by Glyn Robbins.
It’s a creative way for the audience to farewell the cold months, as the children Susan, Edmund, Lucy and Peter save the land of Narnia from the clutches of the White Witch’s Hundred Years Winter.
Set in the 1940s during WWII, the children are evacuated from their home in London during the Blitz to a professor’s home in the countryside. Stumbling across a wardrobe in a spare room, the four siblings find their way through the wardrobe to the land of Narnia.
Besides the ‘human characters', there’s an array of roles for the students to inhabit on the stage, including Aslan, the wise lion king of Narnia; Mr Tumnus the faun, Mr Beaver and Mrs Beaver, Fenris Ulf the fearsome wolf, and Maugrim the Dwarf, servant to Jadis, the White Witch.
The acting, lighting, sound, snow apparatus, fog machine, crew, technicians and costumes are the responsibility of students from Year 9 to 13, and rehearsals for the production began in March to fit in with Collegiate’s robust extracurricular timetable.
Jennifer Gregg, Head of Learning for Performing Arts and the play's director, says the students have enjoyed the challenge of inhabiting fantastical or animal characters.
Year 13 student Andrew McGechan, the school’s cultural leader, is playing Tumnus the faun. It’s his last production at Collegiate, and he is looking forward to bringing some fun and light to the role.
“I want Tumnus to be someone the audience remembers. I want him to have a happy personality.” Gentle, cultured, and friendly, though initially timid and nervous; he’s an important part of the story.
Sophie Liang will be portraying the White Witch in all her wickedness, “It's really fun to work with her because she's quite opposite from how I usually behave; she’s a cruel leader. I’m really enjoying the rehearsals. Everyone's really nice and encouraging, and it's just such a judgement-free environment.”
‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ will be staged at the Prince Edward Auditorium, Whanganui Collegiate School, for two shows on August 20 and 21, at 7pm and is designed for a young audience and the young at heart.
Tickets are available via www.trybooking.com/nz/event/20664;$20 adults/$15 concession.
Rehearsal Photo: The White Witch reigning from her sleigh designed and built by Head of Learning - Technology & Design, Alistair Duff. The sleigh will be adorned with lanterns and a sparkling wintry theme. Edmund (George Belton) is in the clutches of the dwarf (Dakota Punga), who is following orders from the White Witch (Sophie Liang), with Maugrim (Margaux Orum) cowering in fear of the White Witch.
