Step into the world of Narnia in Sussex venues

SussexWorld

Joanna Adaran is on her first professional tour – and she is starting with a monumental one, 14 months on the road with The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon. My name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Really lovely

00:06to speak to Joanna this afternoon. Now, Joanna, you're at the start of an immense monumental

00:11journey. You are touring for, oh, probably, is it about 14 months in total?

00:17Yeah, about 14, 15 months.

00:19In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, starting off in Leeds, but future dates include Brighton

00:25and Eastbourne and Southampton. And this is your first tour. It's a pretty good way to

00:31start, isn't it?

00:32Yeah, not a bad way to start off any future touring that I will do. But yeah, I'm really

00:40excited.

00:41And in something that's so complex and must be so visually stunning, a production on stage

00:46of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, that's got to be fabulous to look at before you even

00:50start, hasn't it?

00:53Absolutely. I remember something I was sharing with my classmates during the teching process

01:00of the show in Leeds was being in the show is so special because, yes, the audience get

01:06to see how beautiful it is. But there are moments where we also get to experience that

01:10as well. For example, stepping into Narnia for the first time, our reactions are really

01:17quite real because what we're seeing on the stage is absolutely amazing. So it feels it's

01:22actually quite an honour to be able to to be in a show where, you know, what the audience

01:29is seeing is also what we're feeling.

01:30Absolutely. And it's a story that means so much to so many people, doesn't it? Does that

01:36feel like a pressure? There is expectation, isn't there?

01:41Definitely, especially with the 75th anniversary of the book this year. But I'd say perhaps

01:48less pressure and more excitement, more like I said, it's really an honour. I think this

01:56The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at one point was voted the nation's favourite book.

02:00So to be able to bring that to the stage in the way that we do, it's really a pinch me

02:08moment, a pinch me moment every day for the next year.

02:11Presumably one of the reasons it's the nation's favourite book is, as we were saying, it's

02:16one of those books that you can take whatever you want from, can't you? Whatever you need

02:20in that moment. And it's really interesting when I asked you what that represents going

02:25through The Wardrobe, what that other world is, you said instantly faith.

02:30Yes, absolutely. I think, as I mentioned, you can take what you want from it. But definitely

02:37I would say that faith and belief are probably at the core of The Lion, the Witch and the

02:42Wardrobe, because for Lucy, seeing isn't believing. She's able to open her mind and

02:48believe that anything really is possible. But perhaps for the older siblings, Peter

02:53and Susan, who have kind of been placed in this surrogate parent perspective at such

02:59a young age and position, it's a lot harder for them to kind of tap into that and engage

03:06with that.

03:07And we should say that you are Susan, aren't you?

03:09I am Susan, yes.

03:11And she holds back initially, doesn't she? She doubts.

03:15She does. She really does doubt. She doesn't doubt her sister to be a liar, because she

03:19knows that she's not, but she's still not able to engage with the whole, there's another

03:26world behind the wardrobe thing. It's quite difficult for her. And until she opens her

03:33mind, that's when she's able to experience Narnia the way in which her sister does.

03:39And that's what makes it interesting for you to play that journey, isn't it?

03:43Absolutely.

03:44Brilliant. And you'll be playing it for the next year.

03:46For the next year.

03:49What a lovely prospect. Fabulous to speak to you. Good luck with everything.

03:52Thank you so much, Bill.

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