THE CHALK GARDEN Donmar Theatre - This is London
Though probably best known for her children's novel ‘National Velvet,’ Enid Bagnold also turned her hand to writing plays and had a significant success with this quirky upper middleclass comedy which premiered in New York in 1955 before opening in London the following year. Michael Grandage's delightful revival brings out all the charm of Bagnold's idiosyncratic, aphoristic style whilst refusing to shy away from the darker side of her characters' behaviour.
Apparently inspired by her own experiences when interviewing potential nannies, this wittily written account of an unconventional and dysfunctional household definitely has its serious side. Just like the flowers which refuse to grow in the infertile chalk of Mrs. St. Maugham's Sussex garden, her 16 year old granddaughter Laurel (who hasn't seen her mother for years since she remarried) cannot flourish in an emotionally sterile environment where her closest friend is the highly strung manservant Maitland, a conscientious objector who served five years in prison.
Penelope Wilton is enigmatically controlled as the mysterious, greenfingered Miss Madrigal with a questionable past. Hired (without references but with considerable horticultural knowledge) as companion to Felicity Jones' precociously curious Laurel, she manages not only to curb her young charge's tendency to elaborate the truth and play (literally) with fire, but also to coax the garden into life – despite the contradictory orders of the ancient butler who lies, unseen and dying, a relic in an upstairs bedroom.
But the star of this highly enjoyable evening is Margaret Tyzack's bitchy, manipulative but ultimately lonely grandmother. Tyzack revels in her eccentricities and (despite her sharp tongue and scathing attitude towards her own daughter) makes it impossible not to feel a twinge of sympathy for this unconventional old dowager with her emotionally barren existence.
Louise Kingsley
Though probably best known for her children's novel ‘National Velvet,’ Enid Bagnold also turned her hand to writing plays and had a significant success with this quirky upper middleclass comedy which premiered in New York in 1955 before opening in London the following year. Michael Grandage's delightful revival brings out all the charm of Bagnold's idiosyncratic, aphoristic style whilst refusing to shy away from the darker side of her characters' behaviour.
Apparently inspired by her own experiences when interviewing potential nannies, this wittily written account of an unconventional and dysfunctional household definitely has its serious side. Just like the flowers which refuse to grow in the infertile chalk of Mrs. St. Maugham's Sussex garden, her 16 year old granddaughter Laurel (who hasn't seen her mother for years since she remarried) cannot flourish in an emotionally sterile environment where her closest friend is the highly strung manservant Maitland, a conscientious objector who served five years in prison.
Penelope Wilton is enigmatically controlled as the mysterious, greenfingered Miss Madrigal with a questionable past. Hired (without references but with considerable horticultural knowledge) as companion to Felicity Jones' precociously curious Laurel, she manages not only to curb her young charge's tendency to elaborate the truth and play (literally) with fire, but also to coax the garden into life – despite the contradictory orders of the ancient butler who lies, unseen and dying, a relic in an upstairs bedroom.
But the star of this highly enjoyable evening is Margaret Tyzack's bitchy, manipulative but ultimately lonely grandmother. Tyzack revels in her eccentricities and (despite her sharp tongue and scathing attitude towards her own daughter) makes it impossible not to feel a twinge of sympathy for this unconventional old dowager with her emotionally barren existence.
Louise Kingsley
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