With towering puppets, a C.S. Lewis epic returns to Logos Theatre in Taylors

A 10-foot lion operated by three actors, walking trees on stilts and nearly three hours of sweeping stagecraft are coming home to Taylors as the Logos Theatre brings its touring production of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” back to where it all began.

C.S. Lewis’ classic story about four siblings who enter the magical land of Narnia is running at the Logos Theatre through March 28.

The theater’s production, with a cast of 55, has been performed more than 200 times in various venues, with extended runs at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., and at the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky.

“We’ve had many sold-out performances around the country, so we’re really excited to bring the play back home,” said Noah Stratton, president of the Logos Theatre and its parent organization, The Academy of Arts.

The story centers on siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy who discover the hidden world of Narnia, where it is always winter under the rule of the White Witch. But the children help the great lion Aslan defeat the witch’s tyranny.

A classic story

The Logos Theatre stages the story as an epic, almost three hours in length, with continuous musical underscoring, special effects and towering puppets, including walking trees on stilts and the 10-foot long Aslan, controlled by three actors.

“This is a unique version of the story,” Stratton said. “People will never see the play like this.”

Though the touring production was created by the Logos Theatre, it is being performed publicly at the theater for the first time.

The show is appropriate for families, ages 5 and up, Stratton said.

The play is closely adapted from Lewis’ novel by the Logos Theatre’s Artistic Director Nicole Stratton, who also directs the production.

“We like to stick to the original source material,” Noah Stratton said. “There’s a reason these books are classics. We just want to tell the story that Lewis so beautifully wrote.”

Lewis’ 1950 novel “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” is perhaps the best-known of the seven books in the British author’s “Chronicles of Narnia” series.

In addition to “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” the Logos Theatre is currently producing its play “Joseph: God Meant it for Good” at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., and is mounting a new touring production, “Prince Caspian,” based on another novel in Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia.”