| The Chalk Garden | |
|---|---|
 First edition (Random House, 1956) | |
| Written by | Enid Bagnold |
| Date premiered | 21 September 1955 |
| Place premiered | Shubert Theatre,New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
| Original language | English |
The Chalk Garden is a play byEnid Bagnold that premiered in the USA in 1955 and was produced in Britain the following year. It tells the story of the imperious Mrs St Maugham and her granddaughter Laurel, a disturbed child under the care of Miss Madrigal, a governess, whose past life is a mystery that is solved during the action of the play. The work has been revived numerous times internationally, and wasadapted for the cinema in 1964.
Bagnold wrote the play with an English premiere in mind, but theWest End producer,Binkie Beaumont, turned it down: "I confess I find some of the symbolism confusing and muddling."[1] The piece was taken up by the American producerIrene Selznick, who proposed aBroadway premiere. She found the play challenging and tantalising – "I am haunted by its gossamer flashes of poetry and beauty" – but lacking in focus. In July 1954 she travelled to England to work with Bagnold for six weeks, tightening the play.[2] They discussed the casting for the production; the author hopedEdith Evans would play Mrs St Maugham, but Selznick insisted on castingGladys Cooper.[3] For the enigmatic role of Miss Madrigal, Selznick hoped to cast her friendKatharine Hepburn, but Hepburn did not respond to the play and turned the part down. Selznick and Bagnold agreed to offer the part toWendy Hiller, who declined it because she did not wish to leave England. Finally,Siobhán McKenna accepted the role.[3]
Selznick engagedGeorge Cukor to direct; he took the play through its rehearsals and out-of-town previews, but handed over toAlbert Marre before theBroadway premiere.[4] The designer for both sets and costumes wasCecil Beaton, whom Cukor and Selznick found intolerable to work with, but whose designs were highly praised.[5]
The Chalk Garden was first performed at theShubert Theatre,New Haven, Connecticut, on 21 September 1955,[6] and was given on Broadway at theEthel Barrymore Theatre on 26 October. It ran for 182 performances.[7]
When Beaumont saw the enthusiastic reviews by the New York critics he immediately changed his mind about producing the piece in London.[8] The play had its British premiere at theAlexandra Theatre,Birmingham, on 21 March 1956 and was first seen in London on 11 April at theTheatre Royal Haymarket. The director wasJohn Gielgud, the sets were by Reece Pemberton and the costumes bySophie Harris. The play ran at the Haymarket for 658 performances, ending on 9 November 1957.[6]
| US cast | London cast | Replacements during London run | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maitland | Fritz Weaver | George Rose | |
| Judge | Percy Waram | Felix Aylmer | |
| Miss Madrigal (First Applicant) | Siobhán McKenna | Peggy Ashcroft | Pamela Brown Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies Mavis Walker |
| Second Applicant | Georgia Harvey | Ruth Lodge | |
| Third Applicant | Eva Leonard-Boyne | Janet Burnell | Margery Weston |
| Laurel | Betsy von Furstenberg | Judith Stott | Erica Bruce |
| Mrs St Maugham | Gladys Cooper | Edith Evans | Gladys Cooper |
| Nurse | Marie Paxton | Mavis Walker | Gwen Hill |
| Olivia | Marian Seldes laterLori March | Rachel Gurney |
Mrs St Maugham lives in her country house in a village inSussex, where the garden is on lime and chalk, making it difficult for her to succeed in her determined but incompetent efforts as a gardener. She is taking care of her disturbed teenage grandchild, Laurel, who has been setting fires. Miss Madrigal, an expert gardener, is hired as a governess, despite her lack of references. Also in the household is a valet, Maitland, who has just been released from a five-year sentence in prison. Olivia, Laurel's mother, who has remarried, arrives for a visit. When the Judge comes to the house for lunch, he reveals that he had sentenced Miss Madrigal to jail for murder.
The first Australian production, in 1957, featuredSybil Thorndike,Lewis Casson,Patricia Kennedy andGordon Chater.[9] In Britain, Gladys Cooper again played Mrs St Maugham in a 1970 revival directed byLaurier Lister at theYvonne Arnaud Theatre,Guildford, withJoan Greenwood as Miss Madrigal,Robert Flemyng as Maitland andDonald Eccles as the Judge.[10] Cooper and Greenwood reprised their roles in the play's firstWest End revival, in 1971 at the Haymarket, directed byWilliam Chappell, withMichael Goodliffe as the Judge andPeter Bayliss as Maitland.[11]
The first revival in New York was given by theRoundabout Theatre Company at Roundabout Stage 1 from 30 March 1982 to 20 June 1982. The cast featuredConstance Cummings as Mrs St Maugham,Irene Worth as Miss Madrigal andDonal Donnelly as Maitland. The director was John Stix.[12] As at 2020 this was the only further staging of the piece in New York, a planned production in 2017 starringAngela Lansbury having fallen through.[13]
A 1984 British tour of the play starredEleanor Summerfield as Mrs St Maugham andNyree Dawn Porter as Miss Madrigal;Ernest Clark was the Judge andBruce Montague played Maitland.[14] A revival at theKing's Head Theatre, London in 1992 again featured Cummings as Mrs St Maugham, withJean Marsh as Miss Madrigal and Robert Flemyng as the Judge.[15] The play was revived in Australia in 1995, starringGoogie Withers,Judi Farr andJohn McCallum.[16]
A 2008 production at theDonmar Warehouse, London was directed byMichael Grandage, withMargaret Tyzack as Mrs St Maugham,Penelope Wilton as Miss Madrigal,Felicity Jones as Laurel, andJamie Glover as Maitland.[17] In 2018 theChichester Festival Theatre presented a new production, featuringPenelope Keith (Mrs St Maugham),Amanda Root (Miss Madrigal) andOliver Ford Davies (Judge). The director was Alan Strachan.[18]
A1964 film adaptation featured Edith Evans as Mrs St Maugham,Deborah Kerr as Miss Madrigal,Hayley Mills as Laurel, andJohn Mills as Maitland. It was directed byRonald Neame.[19]
The BBC broadcast a radio adaptation of the play in 1968, with Edith Evans recreating her role of Mrs St Maugham,Mary Morris as Miss Madrigal,Cecil Parker as the Judge andAngela Pleasence as Laurel.[20] The cast of the 2008 Donmar production recorded a studio performance forBBC Radio 3, first broadcast in March 2011.[21]
The notices for the Broadway premiere were excellent.Brooks Atkinson wrote inThe New York Times:
InThe Daily News John Chapman called it "A tantalizing, fascinating and stimulating piece of theatre … the most literate and sophisticated" of recent plays.[23]Walter Kerr of theNew York Herald Tribune wrote, "I can't quite remember any other occasion in the theater when I so resisted a first act only to wind up at the end of the third wishing there were a fourth."[24]
When the play opened in London,Philip Hope-Wallace wrote inThe Manchester Guardian of experiencing "a unique theatrical pleasure" at Edith Evans's performance, invokedChekhov'sThe Seagull and called the piece "a woman's play in the very best sense, being laconic, compassionate and wonderfully gay-hearted".[25] InThe Observer,Kenneth Tynan commented thatThe Chalk Garden "may well be the finest artificial comedy to have flowed from an English (as opposed to an Irish) pen since the death of Congreve."[26]
Rex Reed, in his review of the 1971 West End production, wrote: "This endearing play never seems to age, perhaps because its characters are written with such wit and brittle cleverness... It is a fragile, gossamer-winged play..."[27]
Frank Rich reviewed the 1982 Roundabout production forThe New York Times, writing: " 'The Chalk Garden' is extraordinarily modern for a high comedy set in the drawing room of a stuffy Sussex manor house: its plot and structure are elliptical; its witty lines aren't brittle but are instead redolent with what the author calls 'the shape and shadow of life.'... Bagnold's play is in part a journey to the bottom of Miss Madrigal's identity; it is also about the effect the woman has on her employer's household. Mrs St Maugham is a selfish, eccentric paragon of privilege who spends her days gardening but can't make anything grow."[28]
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