Maskers' Studio Theatre
on15th to 19th October 1996
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) | |
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 |
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