THE CHALK GARDEN

by
Enid Bagnold and directed by Tony Bull

The Maskers Theatre Company presented Enid Bagnold's 'The Chalk Garden' in October 1996 in the Masker's Studio Theatre.

Background Note

This year marks the 40th. anniversary of the play’s first. London performance which starred Edith Evans and a young Peggy Ashcroft. The chalk garden which totally defeats Mrs.St.Maugham’s attempts to cultivate it is symbolic of her failure with her daughter and her grand-daughter. Plants, like human beings, need a sympathetic understanding she does not know how to give. Thus her garden is bare of the coveted flowers, her daughter Olivia is divorced and her grand-daughter Laurel, adopted after Olivia’s re-marriage, riots in the bizarre atmosphere unchecked by a series of despairing companions. Then Miss Madrigal takes charge .....

Of the play Kenneth Tynan wrote:-

We eavesdrop on a group of thorough-bred minds, expressing themselves in speech of an exquisite candour, building ornamental bridges of metaphor, tip-toeing across frail causeways of simile, vaulting over gorges impassable to the rational soul.

The Observer

Cast in order of appearance

For the Maskers