JESSICA Swale's stage adaptation of The Secret Garden began its life outdoors, since when the garden has moved inside, first at Keswick last Christmas and now at York Theatre Royal this summer.
"I wrote it originally for Chester Open Air Theatre at Grosvenor Park four years ago for an outdoor summer production, which was glorious as there's something about being able to talk about nature when being surrounded by it," says the 35-year-old Berkshire-born playwright, screenwriter and director.
"And now Liz [Stevenson] has done a wonderful job in creating a wild space indoors, bringing the outdoor world inside."
Liz Stevenson first directed Swale's version of Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's story at the Theatre by the Lake, in Keswick, over Christmas and now that production's designs and costumes by Lily Arnold, menagerie of puppets and musical score by Barnaby Race transfer to York where four Keswick cast members are joined by seven new additions.
"I love the chance to share ideas with young audiences," says writer Jessica Swale
Swale writes mainly original work, such as 2013's Olivier Award-winning Blue Stockings and 2015's Nell Gwynn, but she also felt drawn to Burnett Hodgson's 1910 story of lonely, orphaned Mary Lennox being sent from an aristocratic upbringing in India at the age of ten to live with an unknown uncle in Misselthwaite Manor, a mysterious place on the wild Yorkshire moors.
"I occasionally write adaptations, when the stories have cultural resonance for now, which is really vital to me," says Jessica. "I love the chance to share ideas with young audiences, and for me, the questions that the story prompts will make me decide whether to adapt it.
"Several things struck me about The Secret Garden. Firstly, I thought it was a real opportunity to say something about how difficult it is to negotiate being an 'outsider', especially with the ongoing questions surrounding immigration, multi-cultural Britain and Brexit. It's so important for young people to have someone to look to in the theatre, to see someone who has to find a way of being accepted.
"In Mary Lennox's case, she comes to England from India and is dumped in an 'alien' place in Yorkshire, and I felt there was something missing from the novel: a celebration of all things Indian that she brings to Misselthwaite Manor. So I bring Indian sounds and magic into the play because India is one of my favourite countries in the world. We're so much richer for that culture coming into ours."
Swale also notes how The Secret Garden has plenty to say about "not fitting in". "I include not only Mary in that, but her father needing to be fulfilled in India, and the boys in the story, Colin Craven and Dickon Sowerby.
Ella Dunlop as Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Ian Hodgson
"But I was not happy with the story of disabled Colin, who's been hidden away in the house, finding his empowerment through getting better, so I thought, 'what if we could make it psychological when he's been told he's unwell, as one relative would benefit from him being kept out of sight'? So it's now more Roald Dahl-esque, with a character to dislike who's not got children's interests at heart. It's still a moving moment when Colin stands up and walks, but it's now not about disability but overcoming obstacles."
The power of imagination is key to both Swale's adaptation and Stevenson's direction. "The children's imagination triumphs," says Jessica. "That's another reason I thought it was a good book to adapt.
"It's a family show that can offer as much to adults as children, and there's something pleasurable about writing a piece that reminds you how wonderful it is to engage with your imagination. I'm using theatre as a tool to show why imagination is so important in helping you to see someone in a different light."
Swale was keen too to reassess the Secret Garden itself. "I wanted to push the theme that the garden didn't become beautiful because they tended to it, but they loved it as it was and allowed it to be itself," she says. "It's the wildness of the garden that is something to embrace, like the need for freedom in their own lives, and I love how the story celebrates freedom and nature at a time when we're squashing that.
"That's why I'm also pleased this production is being staged in Yorkshire, where I used to spend my childhood holidays. Yorkshire has always celebrated nature and the wildness of it all: that delight in the untamed outdoors."
York Theatre Royal presents the Theatre by the Lake production of The Secret Garden until August 25. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
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