The Chalk Garden
Enid Bagnold
Comic Thriller - 3 Acts
M2 (elderly) F7 (16, 40s, middle-age, elderly). A living-room.
The chalk garden which totally defeats Mrs St Maugham's attempts
to cultivate it is symbolic of her failure with her daughter and her
granddaughter. Then Miss Madrigal, a hired companion, takes charge.
'We eavesdrop on a group of thoroughbred minds, expressing themselves
in speech of an exquisite candour, building ornamental bridges of
metaphor, tiptoeing across frail causeways of simile, and vaulting
over gorges impassable to the rational soul.' Kenneth Tynan, Observer
Synopsis
Eccentric Mrs St Maugham has engaged the enigmatic Miss Madrigal to
be governess to her granddaughter at her country manor house in Sussex
in the 1950s. The house has a garden with a difficult chalky soil.
Equally difficult to manage is the girl, a precocious liar who fabricates
salacious stories about her childhood.
The household is mystified by the congenial Miss Madrigal who is later
revealed as a murderess who has served fifteen years in prison. She
sees a lot of herself in the disruptive girl and finally persuades
her to give up fantasising and return to her mother, whom she despises. Now alone, Mrs St. Maugham asks the governess to stay
on with her, and although still curious about her crime, she accepts
her offer to help make the chalk garden flourish.
Characters
- Miss Madrigal
- Maitland
- Second applicant
- Laurel
- Thin applicant
- Mrs St Maugham
- Nurse
- Olivia
- The Judge
ISBN 0 573 01064 1
|
|