Performed at the

Maskers' Studio Theatre

on

15^th to 19^th October 1996

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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 .....

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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

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Cast (in order of appearance)
Miss Madrigal, The first applicant	Maria Head
Maitland, The manservant	Keith della Gana
A Little Lady, 2nd. applicant	Brenda Atkinson
Laurel	Lucia Latimer
Mrs. St. Maugham, her Grandmother	Marion Westbury
Nurse	Norma Mackey
Olivia, Laurel’s Mother	Terese Davies
The Judge	Harry Tuffill

 

For the Maskers
Stage Manager	Martin Ingoe
Properties	Ella Lockett, Christel Mauffet
Set Design	Ken Spencer
Set Construction	Bryan Langford, Douglas Shiell, Geoff Cook
Set Painting	Ken Spencer
Lighting	Clive Weeks
Sound	Lawrie Gee
Wardrobe	The Maskers
Front of House Managers	Sheana Carrington, John Carrington
Box office	Belinda Drew