by ENID BAGNOLD
Ukaria Cultural Centre
119 Williams Road, Mt Barker Summit
Saturday June 11 @ 2.00 $25/ticket
High-born military widow, Mrs St Maugham, has taken custody of her alarming granddaughter, Laurel, who specialises in self-dramatisation and pyromania. The old lady engages a governess - the mysterious Miss Madrigal - who sees that the lying teenager can no more flourish in this world of licensed eccentricity, than rhododendrons can prosper in Mrs St Maugham's arid chalk garden. Meanwhile, Laurel and the butler, Maitland, sharing a passion for true crime, set out to discover the secret to Miss Madrigal’s past.
The play’s brilliantly witty dialogue inspired acerbic critic, Kenneth Tynan, to say that it "may well be the finest artificial comedy to have flowed from an English (as opposed to an Irish) pen since the death of Congreve".
Enid Bagnold is best known as author the classic novel, National Velvet, which was immortalised in the 1944 film that brought Elizabeth Taylor to stardom. But, Bagnold was also a successful playwright, and - in 1955 - wrote The Chalk Garden. It opened first on Broadway, and then in London, with Dame Edith Evans and Dame Peggy Ashcroft as the grandmother and governess. It was filmed in 1964, with Edith Evans, Deborah Kerr, and the teenage Hayley Mills as Laurel. IT’s staged playreading of this intriguing play stars Elaine Lee as Mrs St Maugham, with Eloise Quinn-Valentine and Stuart Pearce.
presented by arrangement with ORiGiN Theatrical acting as agents for Samuel French Ltd
Directed by
ROB CROSER