"Shaw’s “The Secret Garden” reveals its beauty, charm and whimsy but is genre conflicted."

What happens when you take a 112-year-old classic children’s novel, mix in a few dusty old British folk tunes, add some clever puppetry and several inspired performances?

You get a delightful world premiere adaptation of a family-friendly show that bogs itself down with songs, providing little support to its narrative of optimism, transformation, relationships and rebirth.

Frances Hodgson Burnett was a prolific British-American novelist and playwright whose career flourished throughout the Victorian and Edwardian periods. She’s best known for her three children’s novels, “Little Lord Fauntleroy”, “A Little Princess” and “The Secret Garden”. The latter proved a huge success and saw numerous adaptations; multiple film versions in 1919 and 1949 and a third 1993 film starring Maggie Smith as the housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock.
The best-known stage version is the Tony-Award winning Broadway musical written by Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon (Carly’s sister).

This is where the genre conflict comes in. This current world-premiere production doesn’t really have a “score”. No themes and power ballads so it’s not really a musical, yet there is too much music to call it a play. Thus, director Jay Turvey and musical director Paul Sportelli dub their dubious hybrid a “play with songs”. More on that in a moment.

The Secret Garden tells the story of Mary Lennox (Gabriella Sundar Singh), a spoiled young English girl being raised in India at the turn of the twentieth century. After the death of her parents, she is sent to live with her haughty and dismissive uncle Archie (David Alan Anderson) at his estate in the Yorkshire moors. Mary is disagreeable and used to being waited on. Her maid Martha (Jacqueline Thair) even needs to show her how to dress herself. Housekeeper Mrs. Medlock (Sharry Flett) is cold and unsympathetic with secrets to hide.

Mary is mostly ignored and left to wander outside in the gardens, where she meets groundskeeper Ben Weatherstaff (David Adams). The manor is full of secrets as Mary soon discovers she has a cousin in Colin (Gryphyn Karimloo) and friend in Dickon (Drew Plummer). Mary hears rumours of a mysterious garden locked up for over a decade after the death of her uncle’s wife. Together with her two friends, she sets out to discover the secrets of the manor and bring the garden back to life.

Director Jay Turvey’s creative direction and clever staging is wondrous. The Royal George is a small theatre but by having actors walk through an ornate door frame rolled about the stage by the ensemble, we are given a sense of moving through vast spaces and locations - from a train station to the Yorkshire moors, to Misselthwaite Manor and its many bedrooms, studies, and hallways. This is stagecraft of the most illusory kind, and it works beautifully. The same can be said for the various birds and land animals that appear as puppets controlled by the ensemble.

In this adaptation, the adult characters are almost incidental. The focus is most certainly on the children, boldly played by young adult actors. I wasn’t sure about this choice at first, but their fine committed performances and diminutive stature of some had me sold on their juvenile portrayals.

In his program notes, Turvey confesses, “I love the children in ‘The Secret Garden.’They are imperfect: headstrong, scared, sneaky, adventuresome and full of longing. They learn to parent each other where death hovers over their heads.” His focus on this trio is evident and their chemistry is palpable.
I wonder why, with such a clear vision of connecting the audience with the modern relevance of so many of the play’s themes – mental health, resilience, preservation of ecology for future generations – that he chose to collaborate with Sportelli to add obscure traditional British folk tunes to an already provocative script? Whither Must I Wander, I Sowed the Seeds of Love, Sumer is Icumen In, Little Robin Redbreast - Does anyone today know these tunes?

Turvey claims they “echo an appreciation of the natural world that runs through the story”.

Unfortunately, there’s no echo. There’s nothing.

The songs in Act 1 in no way enhance the story. In Act 2 they are so vague and esoteric, with lyrics incomprehensibly sung in the Yorkshire dialect, that the pace faltered, and I found my attention wandering.

The cast all have vocal chops and are accompanied by a fine sounding quintet in the pit below. But they aren’t given any real chance to show their vocal range, so it’s not a musical per se BUT there are choral numbers with beautiful harmonies and the cast gesture to the musicians at curtain call so it’s not really a play. Like Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, it just can’t seem to make up its mind.

Performances are compelling overall. This is one hardworking company, onstage and off. With one exception, the nine-member cast plays multiple ensemble roles as well as principal parts. It’s more than a challenge to keep the energy and pace quick and bright for this show. Unfortunately, there was a noticeable wane in energy and enthusiasm in the second half.

As Mary Lennox, Gabriella Sundar Singh effortlessly exudes the air of a spoiled 10-year-old rich kid who slowly comes to know the power of family and friendships. Her subtle shift in maturity as she realizes nature as a calming and redemptive force is finely nuanced. Gryphyn Karimloo as Colin plays a long-suffering and morose boy, resigned to a life of sickness and confinement, until Mary helps him deal with his melancholy. Dickon, the moor boy with a unique relationship with the land is played adequately by Drew Plummer. Though engaging enough, I was missing a spritelier demeanour, as his character should have an almost ethereal connection to the land and animals.

The adult characters serve as supporting roles. As Ben Weatherstaff, David Adams is thoroughly charming as the stodgy but loveable groundskeeper who teaches Mary about gardening. Mrs. Medlock is gloriously played by Shaw veteran Sharry Flett, who seems to delight in her stern, unmoveable portrayal as the housekeeper loyal to the Craven family, intent on keeping its secrets. Jacqueline Thair plays the spunky and spirited maid Martha, whose Yorkshire dialect was so thick as to be mostly incomprehensible.

Regarding the accents, they’re mostly consistent. I appreciated that some of the Yorkshire vocal patterns were dialed back for Canadian audiences. Perhaps Thair didn’t get that memo? Note to voice and dialect coach Jeffrey Simlett.

Having David Alan Anderson play both the wistful Archibald Craven and his officious doctor brother Neville is a curious and inexplicable choice. Perhaps it’s because the role of Neville is so brief and paltry or perhaps there was no other cast member available. Whatever the reason, Anderson’s portrayals were not different enough in demeanour or appearance, making both characters dull and unconvincing and confusing. Rounding out the cast are Patty Jamieson as Dickon and Martha’s sage and sensible mother, Mrs. Sowerby. Lithe, balletic moves from the exquisite Tama Martin adds mischief and mystery to her ever-present robin and garden nymph.

Beyata Hackborn’s minimalist set perfectly places us in the cold, stark hallways of Misselthwaite Manor. Sections of wood panelling seem to be growing shrubs at their bases while large columns flank a large multi-paned window looking out to an abstract landscape of the rolling moor. Garden trellises festooned with vines and leafy branches lean on the left and right edges of the proscenium. Beds, wheelbarrows, suitcases, bookshelves and flower planters are easily slid on and off by the adroit and efficient ensemble. Kudos to the innovative use of full-length panels with the tops cut out revealing ensemble members as creepy portraits of hallowed ancestors. The abstract follows through into the garden with suspended hula-hooped trees while small bushes and flowers are brought on by the cast.

Judith Bowden’s costume design nails the Edwardian contrasts of aristocracy and servitude. From crisp suits to nightdresses, capes and top hats to outdoor workwear, her attention to detail is immaculate. The train station scene with everyone clad in black is a powerful opening image. Costuming of the ensemble puppeteers to evoke their animal counterparts is genius! Sharry Flett’s black riding suit with wing swept fascinator as the crow and Patty Jamieson’s red argyle trousers as the fox – marvelous!

The lighting for a moody, dark and mysterious show like this one is critical. Kevin Lamotte delivers a superbly atmospheric design. Harsh beams of white light create a shadowy foreboding in the train station and at Misselthwaite. It’s all colourless and cold. Ingenious use of white moving rectangles projected on the stage floor create a labyrinth of corridors as Mary moves throughout the house. I won’t soon forget the powerful image of Mary glaring from a distance at a mysterious door at the end of one of these long corridors. The only thing I was missing was the flicker of a candelabra somewhere – ah well! The garden is starkly contrasted with shades of blue slowly replaced by bright amber as Mary brings her dead aunt’s garden back to life.

This new adaptation has moments of sheer creative brilliance. Adding music is not one of them. The main message of healing is something that resonates loudly today. Mary and Colin heal their relationships with themselves and those around them, make their world a better place. It’s all so powerful, so relevant. Why attempt to make it more than it is with folk songs? There’s already a wonderful musical adaptation out there.
It’s no secret. This play is moving,

Running time: approx. 2 hours 15 minutes including one intermission.

Production runs until October 13 at the Royal George Theatre, 85 Queen St, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON. For tickets call the Box Office at 1-800-511-7429 or email shawfest.com

The Shaw Festival Presents

“The Secret Garden – A Play with Songs”
Directed by Jay Turvey
Music direction by Ryan deSouza
Set designed by Beyata Hackborn
Costumes designed by Judith Bowden
Lighting designed by Kevin Lamotte
Movement Direction by Linda Garneau

Performers: David Adams, David Alan Anderson, Sharry Flett, Patty Jamieson, Gryphyn Karimloo, Tama Martin, Drew Plummer, Gabriella Sundar Singh, Jacqueline Thair.