Performance: Lyra and Iofur

This sequence shows the first half of the scene at Svalbard. Having fallen out of the balloon Lyra (Anna Maxwell Martin) is captured by the armoured bears who take her to their king, Iofur Raknison (Chris Larkin). The scene opens with the bears showing Lyra where her father Lord Asriel is imprisoned. She now has to work out a plan to free him by tricking King Iofur into fighting her companion Iorek Byrnison. Lyra takes advantage of Iofur’s weakness – he wants to be human. He has already convinced the bears to build a palace and now he wants his own daemon. The scene confirms that one of the keys to Lyra’s character is her ability to think ‘creatively’ on her feet. The scene changed many times during rehearsals as you can see by comparing this final scene with an early rehearsal. Click back to the previous page to find the rehearsal ‘Iofur Deceived’.