The Magician's Nephew (MN) is the first book in C.S. Lewis' famed Narnia Chronicles. MN is story of the creation of the world of Narnia, and holds the first confrontation between Aslan the Lion and the Evil Queen Jadis. MN explores the confrontation of good magic (Aslan) and bad magic (Jadis and Uncle Andrew).
There are 16 colourful animals and flowers in Narnia. They will interact with the audience. Come dance with the animals. (Total cast of 21.) The story will unfold in surround theatre style with the children of the audience sitting on the carpeted floor and the action unfolding right in front of and around them.
There will be an opportunity to meet and talk to all the characters after the shows. Raffle tickets available to win a stuffed animal at each public show.
Story summary:
This is the story of Digory, a boy in his early teens, who is staying with his Uncle Andrew and Aunt Letty in their town house because his mother is very ill. One day, while exploring the connecting attics of the row houses with his new friend, Polly, they accidentally open the door to his uncle's secret attic study. They discover that Uncle Andrew is a crazy, scary magician, who tricks Polly into putting on a magic ring. She vanishes right out of the world, and Digory has to follow to bring her back.
Digory and Polly find themselves in Charn, a dying world, and there Digory awakens the evil Queen Jadis out of her enchanted sleep. When the children flee back to their world, Jadis hitches a ride. Back in the our world, the evil queen seeks to become its ruler. To keep Jadis from harming his ill mother, Digory and Polly grab magic rings and take the queen and Uncle Andrew into another world. This time, Digory is looking for the Land of Youth, hoping he'll find something to help his dying mother.
They arrive in the Land of Narnia just as it is about to be created by Aslan, the great lion. Queen Jadis declares she will be its ruler and leaves to survey the new land. All the animals and flowers Aslan calls forth, welcome Polly and Digory, but Uncle Andrew is afraid of them and wants to go home.
Because he has brought evil into the new land, Aslan tells Digory he must go to a distant garden and pick an apple from a magic tree; when he returns with it, Aslan will plant a tree which will protect Narnia from the evil Jadis.
While in the garden, Digory is tempted by Jadis to take the life-giving apple and give it to his mother and not return to Aslan. Digory is tempted but resists her and returns with the apple to Aslan.
The tree is planted and Aslan bids Digory and Polly return to their world, taking Uncle Andrew, and give some of the fruit of the magic tree to Digory's ill mother.
The play ends with them returning to the attic. Uncle Andrew promises never to practise magic again, the rings are buried as Aslan asked, and Digory's mother is healed by the magic fruit. Digory and Polly are sad they will never be able to return to Narnia to see Aslan and the animals, but glad for the adventure they had and what they learned.
