arts // no. §

The carpet, the lamppost,

and the wardrobe

> ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’ play review

Sonam Kaloti
Arts Editor

 

n November 30, with my Turtles-

flavoured hot chocolate and candy
cane in hand, I took in the Pacific
Theatre—a performing arts venue located
in Vancouver. I was about to watch a
100-minute production of The Lion, the
Witch, and the Wardrobe adapted by Ron
Reed.

The play features Rebecca deBoer
and John Voth playing almost all of the
characters except for the tour guide (Kira
Fondse/Shelby Wyminga). The theatre
was unlike any I had ever seen before. The
stage is in the middle of the room on floor
level, touching two side walls, while the
audience's seats are on each side of the
stage, creating somewhat of a fishbowl
effect. As the play began, so did “White
Christmas” by Bing Crosby (my favourite
holiday musician) on what sounded like
a faraway vinyl player. The lights were
dimmed to a cozy orange, perfecting the
holiday ambience.

The cast’s costume changes are mostly
done on stage during their lines. Most of
the costumes are spot-on, especially the
human character costumes for the time
period being represented.

My favourite part of the play was
when Voth changed in and out of his Lion
costume. When he put it on, I pondered
the look for a moment since the costume
appeared quite different from deBoer’s

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Jerrison Oracion
Senior Columnist

 

f you area fan of K-Pop, you probably
know that the biggest summer show
in South Korea is Produce 101. The show
involves various trainees from major record
labels in the country trying to be a part
of a new group, which the viewers decide
by voting. Produce 101 produced famous
groups including I.0.]. and Wanna One,
who are known around the world.

In the most recent season of the show,
which is called Produce 48, some of the
members in the famous Japanese group
AKB48 became involved. This is the third
time in a row that I’ve mentioned the group
in this column. Going into the show as
an AKB48 fan, I think it is a good season,
though the editing in it is choppy.

At the end of the season, three of

Lion costume, which was a hooded gown
with several tassels fixed to the hood to
represent a mane. Voth’s Lion costume
appeared to be a large, old, square fabric
draped on his shoulders—almost like a
carpet. I was ill-prepared for Voth to strip
himself of the Lion cloak, shake it out once,
and lay it down centre-stage—for it really
was a carpet. That got me good.

Despite the artistic venture being
taken, there may be just too many
characters in the script for only two actors
to play. It’s ambitious, which I applaud,
but having an actor on stage cycle through
three or more characters within a minute—
without an outfit change at the least—
makes the production a bit tiring to follow.

However, the actors do a wonderful
job transitioning from their narration voice
back into their characters and vice versa.
This is done smoothly and helps greatly
with being able to follow the play.

The accents are impressive, especially
considering the sheer number of
different accents Voth and deBoer had to
successfully master to play all their parts.
The acting is phenomenal; the two really
seem to put their entire souls into the play,
sounding more and more breathless as
the hours go by. I couldn't memorize 20
minutes of lines, let alone almost two hours
of them.

The set design and lighting are
consistently jaw-dropping. It’s just as
fascinatingly peculiar to watch the duo
change the set on their own, whilst juggling

the AKB48 members were put in the new
12-member group—Sakura Miyawaki and
Nako Yabuki from HKT48, and an AKB48
member from Team 8 named Hitomi
Honda. We find out that the name of the
new group is IZ*ONE. The downside of this
new formation is that the members must
take a break from their respective groups
for two and a half years, and if the group is
successful, there is a possibility that they
will leave AKB48 permanently.

Before they moved to IZ*ONE, these
three members were involved in AKB48’s
next hit single “NO WAY MAN,” which
came out recently. After that, IZ*ONE
worked on their debut EP COLOR?*IZ,
released on October 29. The first hit single
from the short album is “La Vie en Rose.”
When you compare the music video of it
with the music video of “NO WAY MAN,”
you see the difference between J-Pop and
K-Pop.

 

their lines, actions,
and costume
changes all at
once. There are
many props in
the play, which
makes sense as
most of them
seem to be of
great importance.
The wardrobe
itself is pushed
from wall to wall
to represent the
characters’ setting change between Narnia
and their home.

Lighting for different settings is always
beautiful. A blue haze settles on the stage
during most scenes in Narnia, representing
the frosty kingdom. A glowing orange
lamppost blazes against the blue, and from
the ceiling synthetic snow falls upon the
white sheets laid atop the floors.

Shadows are created with the lighting
to represent tree branches and snowflakes.
Near the end of the play, a side door is
opened to allow the only warm light onto
the stage. This creates a perfect campfire
lighting to the dramatic nighttime scene,
which subjects the actors’ shadows to loom
tall and forebodingly on the walls of the
theatre.

I was anxious during the scenes of
a certain stage set-up. The wardrobe had
been laid down horizontally, the top
resting upon a chest so that the wardrobe

Akey
A

AKB48 - “NO WAY MAN”
Many people expected that the song
would have a K-Pop sound. While it
sounds more like J-Pop, the choreography
is K-Pop intense and is the most difficult
choreography that the group has done. The
music video of the song was released on
October 25. It begins and ends with a man
dancing, which reminded me of the person
in the Six Flags commercials. Throughout
the music video, we see the group dance
and it looks like a commercial that I would
see in Japan. Because the group is dancing
together and we see them from different
angles, it is difficult to find a specific
member.

When I watched it the first time, I
could not find NGT48’s Nakai Rika, but
I spotted her in the first half of the video
when I watched it the second time. Even
Miyu Takeuchi who was in Produce 48
made a joke about trying to find her in the

 

theotherpress.ca

Photo of play via PacificTheatre.org

was suspended diagonally from the floor.
Characters laid atop the wardrobe, ran

on it, and danced on it—and the entire
time my body was tensed, just waiting for
the top of the wardrobe to crash down. It
didn't, thankfully, but it was a lot to take for
my heart.

I do wish there was more mature
comedy within the play. The homage to
the children’s classic is fantastic but most
of the audience in the performance I
attended consisted of people in their early
40s to seniors. Seeing more dimension in
the script to cater better to the audience
may have amplified the performance a lot.
Strangely though, much of the audience
seemed greatly amused by the children’s
humour, for which I have no explanation.

Overall, the play is incredibly
impressive, especially since the majority of
the show is performed by only two actors. I
think all art that has such soul deserves to
be experienced. The Lion, the Witch, and
the Wardrobe runs until December 29.

 

music video.

IZ*ONE - “La Vie en Rose”
Four days after “NO WAY MAN,’ this music
video was released. It has everything that I
would expect in a K-Pop music video with
the zoom-ins, members holding objects,
and random settings. There is a scene at
the end of this video that reminds me of
a scene in the music video of the Girls
Generation song, “Gee.”

The Korean members have more
lines in “La Vie en Rose” than the Japanese
members. The member who stands out is
my favourite member of the group, Yu-Jin
An. The Japanese member who stands
out is Honda. Yabuki, who is the shortest
member in the group, can be easily seen in
some shots.

When the music video was released, it
reached number four on YouTube—which
is a hint that the group could be successful.