The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden is a great alternative to the onslaught of Christmas panto tomfoolery during the festive season.

Leaving behind the usual cross-dressing, innuendoes and paper-thin plotting, this is a serious-minded adaptation of a much-loved children’s novel from the last century.

Mary Lennox’s world has been shattered. Recently orphaned due to a cholera epidemic, she is forced to leave the world she knows in India for her uncle’s estate in England. There, her loneliness leads her to wander the grounds, where she befriends many of the servants and begins to find a purpose in life by tending her dead aunt’s beloved garden.

The production is a remount of an award-winning Broadway musical. Written by Marsha Norman (book & lyrics) and Lucy Simon (music), the musical focuses on mature themes of loss and alienation, and it gives as much focus to the adult characters (both living and dead) as it does to its two juvenile protagonists. Because of this, the production may not be for younger audiences.

However, those willing to take a mature journey will be greatly rewarded. Director Anna Linstrum has taken a challenging script and created a beautiful and emotion-heavy production. Aided by an excellent design concept, the production looks stunning. Set pieces glide across the stage and the chorus link together to create stretching corridors, making the production all the grander.

The cast are uniformly strong, both in performance and in voice, with outstanding turns from Caspar Phillipson as Mary’s uncle Archibald Craven, Lauren Hood as maid Martha and Sophie Bould as the ghost of Aunt Lily.

The biggest gamble of the production is on the fact that the lead must be played by a young girl, and Sophie Kavanagh more than does herself and the production proud. Mary Lennox is a difficult role for anyone; she must go from spoilt and sour to warm and optimistic, and the success of the production hinges on believing this journey. Kavanagh not only succeeds in spades but does so with grace and a beautiful voice.

All of this results in a production that is rich in character, style and emotion. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea for a Christmas show as it has a few more tears than laughs, but it is a great piece of theatre. It’s nice that the Festival Theatre are continuing to have a tradition of non-panto Christmas productions. If only they would use more Scottish-based talent.