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ROYAL COURT THEATRE
Sloane Square, SW1
TWO VENUES: Theatre 'Upstairs' & Theatre 'Downstairs'
BOX OFFICE: (020) 7565 5000
Upstairs
Reviews by Philip Fisher for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
Downstairs
Reviews by Philip Fisher for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
DONMAR WAREHOUSE
Earlham Street, WC2
BOX OFFICE:0870 060 6624 (No booking fee)
"The Chalk Garden "
By Enid Bagnold
Now playing until August 2nd, 2008
I was a bit mystified as to why Michael Grandage, Artistic Director of the Donmar, would want to revive and direct Enid Bagnold's war horse of a play, The Chalk Garden, surely well past its sell by date. How wrong I was. It might be a wee bit dated, but the joy of watching Margaret Tyzack and Penelope Wilton giving an acting master class in perfect timing filled me with deep satisfaction. The theatre is alive and more than well at the Donmar.
Enid Bagnold is probably most famous for her children's book National Velvet, the Hollywood film of which made a star out of the 12 year old Elizabeth Taylor. Bagnold was a woman of many talents; a prolific writer, publishing fiction and non fiction, as well as being an accomplished painter. She was productive throughout her life, and wrote The Chalk Garden in her late 60's. This accounts for Tyzak's (playing the grandmother, Mrs St. Maugham) wonderful line, "I don't entertain any more. The fight's over."
The Chalk Garden is a serious play dealing with dark issues of family relationships set within a hilarious comedy. It was first performed on Broadway in 1955 and, although this production doesn't creak with old fashioned mechanical technique, it could do. It is a well constructed play, in the way plays of that period were. It is also full of screamingly funny one-liners. Apparently, Bagnold used to collect them for future use. When she first drafted The Chalk Garden it was so loaded with bon mots, it was unplayable. Fortunately, her agent sent the play to the ambitious producer Irene Selznick, daughter of Louis B. Mayer and divorced from David O. Selznick. Irene and Enid knocked it into what you see at the Donmar.
The story concerns the dysfunctional domestic arrangements of 70 something Mrs. St. Maugham, Margaret Tyzak, whose house by the sea is next to a chalk garden where next to nothing grows because of the inept plantings and a lack of horticultural expertise on the part of her former manservant, Mr. Pinkbel. Her grand-daughter Laurel, Felicity Jones as a totally convincing 16 year old, lives with her. Laurel is a lying pyromaniac whose verbal inventions about herself and others do nothing to endear her to the new governess, Miss Madrigal, Penelope Wilton. However, Miss Madrigal, who turns out to be a horticultural genius, sees through young Laurel's dissembling, which puts her in the ascendancy in their relationship. That is, until it becomes clear that Miss Madrigal has a secret she would prefer to keep well hidden. Jamie Glover is Maitland, the current manservant who is in cahoots with Laurel and her antics. The disturbed Maitland spent the war years incarcerated as a Conscientious Objector. Suzanne Burden is the estranged mother of Laurel and daughter of Mrs. St. Maugham. Clifford Rose is the judge who comes to lunch and the instrument through which Miss Madrigal's secret is revealed. All are superb in their respective roles.
Do not be put off by the somewhat arch performance at the very beginning of Linda Broughton as an applicant for the job of companion to Laurel. The part of a woman who applies for domestic jobs she has no intention of taking for voyeuristic reasons is, although a believable hobby, the only false note in the play. From there on in, the characterisations are intriguing and often hilariously funny. The ending, which is not an ending at all, but the beginning of a new, probably even darker relationship, harkens forward to plays of the 60's.
The set and costumes are by Peter McKintosh. I wasn't entirely convinced by the set (would Mrs. St. Maugham have had a potting area along a wall of her sitting room/conservatory and is that where she would have entertained the judge). However, the costumes are beautifully evocative of the period. Women really did wear those pregnancy smocks in the 50's and long before a pregnancy dress was necessary. It was a way of announcing pregnancy, not quite a respectable activity yet. Margaret Tyzack's frock for entertaining the judge is gorgeously appropriate for a woman in her 70's and certainly not suitable for wear near a potting shed. Laurel is dressed as 16 year olds were in the 40's, innocent and sweet and perhaps at her grandmother's behest.
Director Michael Grandage has taken every creak and groan out of this play with its clever and intriguing plot and made it sparkle and shine like new.
The Donmar has received support for this production from Nabarro and Ralph Goldenberg & Anna Barbagallo as well as significant on-going support from their Principal Sponsor Barclays Capital, without whom the Donmar could not continue giving us these wonderful plays.
By the way, a dire film of The Chalk Garden was made in 1964 with Edith Evans and Deborah Kerr and should be avoided. It misses all the nuance and hilarity of the stage play.
Reviews by Judith M. Steiner for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
SOHO THEATRE & WRITER'S CENTRE
21 Dean Street
London W1
Box Office: (020) 7478 0100 (24 hrs - no booking fee)
Online sales: www.sohotheatre.com
Reviews by Lucy Popescu for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
THE YOUNG VIC
66 THE CUT, SE1
BOX OFFICE: 020 7928 6363
Reviews by Philip Fisher for Theatreworld Internet Magazine
JERMYN STREET STUDIO THEATRE
(16b Jermyn Street, off Lower Regent Street)
Box Office : 020 7287 2875
ARTS THEATRE,
Great Newport Street
BOX OFFICE: (020) 7836 3334
THE
VENUE
5 Leicester Place
off Leicester Square WC2
Box Office: 020 7434 9629 & 0870 899 3335
(booking fees may apply)
MAY FAIR THEATRE
May Fair Inter-Continental Hotel,
Stratton Street,
London W1A 2AN
BOX OFFICE: 020 7413 1415
THE COCHRANE THEATRE
Southampton Row, EC1 (nearest tube: Holborn)
Box office (020) 7242 7040
SOUND THEATRE
10 Wardour Street, Leicester Square,
London WC1
Box Office: 0870 890 0503
www.kitproductions.com
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