The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe: A script (reader's theatre) 26+

This is a script I adapted from the book by CS Lewis. The class I developed this for had 26 children and we had to do the performance in 15 minutes or less. It was a challenge, but I finally made it work--now you get to benefit!

As reader's theatre, this runs 15 minutes and covers the entire story. If you want to do it as a full production, you can stretch it out much longer by acting out the actions and adding props and staging--this would be great!

To give more children opportunities to be the 4 main children, I double cast the children. 4 children play the 4 siblings after they have come back from their adventures and are recounting the tale and 4 children play the siblings who are in the wardrobe acting out the story.

There are a lot of smaller roles in the play as well, as there were some children in this class who didn't want any lines at all. They all have some lines and these parts still offer ample opportunities for character work and confidence work.

The cast can be expanded by splitting up the statue parts. You can also shrink it for a smaller class size by combining some of the smaller animal parts and giving them to only 1 or 2 children.

The children in my class loved this script--the shyest one was chomping at the bit for the part of the witch--I gave her a chance and she stole the show!

I recommend that this script be used as an enhancement to your reading unit--children will get more out of it if they are also reading "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" by CS Lewis.

The preview I offer is just eh first 2 pages. There are 7 full pages and 1/4 of another page in the full version.

I would recommend this play for those classes that are able to read the original book. This is approximately grades 4, 5 and 6.

Have fun!