The Secret Garden
Pitlochry Festival Theatre, 2023
When orphaned Mary Lennox comes to live at her uncle's great house on the Yorkshire Moors, she finds it full of secrets. The mansion has nearly one hundred rooms, and at night, she hears the sound of crying down one of the long corridors, eventually tracking it down to her cousin Colin who has spent his entire life in bed, unable to walk.
One day Mary finds a key that leads her to a garden held locked for years and completely
overgrown. Mary and her friend Dickon bring the garden back to life and the flourishing garden brings joy back to the house and those living in it.
Elizabeth Newman's new adaption of one of the most delightful and enduring classics of children's literature is set in the Theatre's beautiful Amphitheatre and celebrates the power of transformation and healing through nature.
Cast
Matthew Churcher
Oliver Cookson
Blythe Jandoo
Robbie Scott
Marc Small
Jack Ward
Trudy Ward
Shona White
Creative Team
Written by Frances Hogson Burnett
Adapted by Elizabeth Newman
Director: Ben Occhipinti
Composor: Ben Occhipinti
Designer: Nick Trueman
Costume Designer: Natalie Fern
Stage Manager: Katy Nicolson
DSM: Claire Litton
ASM: Rebecca Gorman
★★★★
"Occhipinti's perfectly pitched production leads us through a series of magical moments, as the stage opens up to Pitlochry's own forest garden, and Dickon brings his animal friends to meet the audience, in gorgeous puppet form."
THE SCOTSMAN
★★★★
"The staging embraces simplicity, with a very small number of props to suggest individual locations, and some winningly cute puppet animals to supplement the human cast...
Matthew Churcher makes a warmly humane narrator."
WHATS ON STAGE
★★★★
"This is an enriching, affirmative show about grief, steeped in gentle wonder. It revels in the positive benefits to mental health and human connection that the natural world can afford."
THE STAGE
★★★★
BROADWAY BABY