Sally Dexter, who was last seen playing Gertrude opposite Michael Sheen’s Hamlet, will send an icy chill across Kensington Gardens when she plays the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe this summer.
The new adaptation of CS Lewis’s perennial favourite, adapted by Rupert Goold and directed by Goold and Michael Fentiman, will also star Forbes Masson as Mr Tumnus and Brian Protheroe as the Professor.
The innovative new production will use projection and puppetry to bring the tale of four children’s adventures in a magical land to life in a specially created tent, which will make the audience feel as though they have also walked through a wardrobe into the enchanted land of Narnia.
Dexter, who received an Olivier Award nomination for her performance as Nancy in the Sam Mendes-directed production of Oliver!, returns to Lewis’s tale having previously appeared in a Royal Shakespeare Company production. The actress, who has also appeared in Billy Elliot The Musical and Sister Act in the West End, also starred in King Lear and Troilus And Cressida for the RSC.
Masson is also an RSC regular, most recently appearing in Romeo And Juliet and Morte D’Arthur, though he may be best known for his work alongside Alan Cumming, writing and starring in cult hit comedy The High Life.
Protheroe was last on the London stage in the acclaimed Tricycle theatre production of Broken Glass, starring opposite Tara Fitzgerald and Antony Sher. By starring in The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe he completes a unique double bill, having already appeared as Saruman in the musical adaptation of The Lord Of The Rings, written by Lewis’s friend and colleague JRR Tolkein.
This new production of The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, presented by threesixty theatre which scored a huge success with its previous tent-based production Peter Pan, runs at Kensington Gardens from 8 May to 9 September.