THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE To Run At Rose Theatre For Christmas 2014

Today the Rose Theatre Kingston announces its Christmas production for 2014 - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The Rose's Director of Learning and Participation, Ciaran McConville, directs Theresa Heskins' adaptation of CS Lewis' masterpiece.

With young actors forming part of the company and playing alongside the professional cast, this will provide a wonderful opportunity for local children. The production opens on 4 December, with previews from 28 November, and runs until 4 January 2015.

The Pevensie children, Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter, are evacuated from their London home to the grand old Professor's house deep in the English countryside. Among its many rooms is one that is quite empty - except for a dusty old wardrobe.

When Lucy steps inside, little does she know that her life will change forever. Beyond the fur coats and mothballs, under the glow of a lamp post, lies the mysterious, magical land of Narnia, a land where it is always winter but never Christmas, a land enslaved by the power of the White Witch.

Lucy takes her brothers and sister on a thrilling adventure to meet the majestic Aslan, the loveable Mr Tumnus and his fantastical friends - and to free Narnia from the White Witch.

If you listen carefully, you will surely hear the whisper, 'Aslan is on the move'.

Theresa Heskins is the Artistic Director of the New Vic Theatre in North Staffordshire. For the New Vic she has directed Widower's Houses, Alecky Blythe's verbatim documentary Where Have I Been All My Life?, The Admirable Crichton, The Rivals, Bryony Lavery's dramatisation of The Wicked Lady, Peter Pan, Humble Boy, The Weir, A Voyage Round My Father, The Wizard of Oz, Cider With Rosie, Jamaica inn, The Glee Club, and her own dramatisations of Alice in Wonderland, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Far From the Madding Crowd, Great Expectations, Bleak House, A Christmas Carol and 101 Dalmatians. As Artistic Director of Pentabus Theatre she commissioned and produced White Open Spaces in collaboration with BBC Radio Drama, Bryony Lavery's Precious Bane and Shot Through the Heart, Alecky Blythe's verbatim documentary Strawberry Fields, Silent Engine in collaboration with the NT Studio, Reza de Wet's Missing/Crossing, Papering Over, On the Slate and The Bridge. As Joint Artistic Director of Jade Theatre she directed Sarah Wood's award-winning Grace. For Radio 4 she has written original dramas includingA Fine Bright Day and Gunpowder Women, and novel adaptations including Lady Audley's Secret and Wives and Daughters, both for Woman's Hour.

Ciaran McConville directs. For the company, his directing work includes Nineteen Eighty-Four, Toad, Stay With Me, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Arabian Nights, Shostakovich, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Scenes from Childhood, Orpheus and Eurydice, The Crucible, Oliver Twist, The Selfish Giant, Life Above the Clouds, Hamlet, Two, The Beggar's Opera,The Girl Who Never Forgot, Musicians, Lay Your Sleeping Head, The Man Who Dreamed and The Gift of the Magi, as well as work with community groups and short films for the Rose Youth Theatre including The Curse of Death's Glenand Rage. His other recent work includes The Enchanted Story Trail (a festive production at RHS Wisley), Touched by Fire and critically acclaimed productions of Shostakovich, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Immortal (all for his own company Debut Theatre). McConville has written more than twenty original plays, including Snowbound, which was developed at the National Theatre Studio and produced at the Trafalgar Studios. He has adapted ten works for the stage, including Terry Deary's Horrible Histories: Ruthless Romans, performed internationally by Birmingham Stage Company, and Tess of the d'Urbervilles. He has written for and performed in NewsRevue and was shortlisted for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Award 2008.

Twitter: @Rosetheatre