The Secret Garden at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

A stony, marble grey wall with three doors and multiple windows containing little candles stands in between the audience and the assorted trees lining the back of Regents Park Open Air Theatre. It’s hard to imagine a better setting for this new adaptation of The Secret Garden than Regents Park, arguably the most beautiful of the Royal parks with its neat rose beds, multicoloured flowers and secret leafy areas. Real birdsong intermittently flutters over the dialogue, and day turns to night over our heads as winter turns to spring before our eyes.

The cast narrate the story like a chorus, which works well as The Secret Garden does initially feel like a Greek tragedy. Neglected and emotionally abused, Mary Lennox (Hannah Khalique Brown) is banished to her room by her father, while her parents decide to carry on partying rather than trouble themselves with a “few sick servants” – a decision which ends in most of the cast frozen against the wall with open, unblinking eyes as we learn that Mary’s parents, along with most of the servants, have died of a cholera outbreak. Steam erupts from the stage as Mary travels to England to stay in Mistlethwaite Manor with her estranged uncle-in-law. Initially appalled at the cold moors, the servant’s lack of deference and the ghostly screams that ruin her sleep, Mary soon begins to search for her aunt’s abandoned garden, a place no one has seen for ten years. Along the way she meets the “magical moor boy” Dickon (Brydie Service), discovers the source of the screams and experiences “the beginnings of a new sentiment”.

Animals are brought to life by human actors using scarfs and primal movements to inject personality into a fox, crow and squirrel. The robin (Sharan Phull) is joyfully created using apt hand gestures and pert runs. This show features a strong cast and a thoughtful, if slightly obvious, script. Theo Angel is hilarious as the prissy Colin Craven and steals the show with his bratty yet oddly endearing behaviour. Hannah Khalique Brown does a great job at showing her character’s vulnerability as she slowly starts to learn to consider other people’s feelings. Using adult actors to play children’s roles can feel disjointed, but it works here because The Secret Garden is hardly a children’s story. The themes are magical and this rendition still has the potential to excite a new generation about the wonders of the outside world, but over 100 years since the book was written we can now clearly identify the themes of intergenerational trauma, child abuse and neglect, and the power of having the right conditions to grow.

While staying close to the original, this version of The Secret Garden presents an updated, more palatable version for a 2024 audience. The Secret Garden has ableist themes at its core, and rather than avoiding or going along with them, this adaption makes the clever choice to change them and make the message about self-acceptance and working with what you have rather than “the power of nature and positive thinking” completely curing all physical and mental ailments. It’s still magical, but “even magic has its limits” – and sometimes the real growth is learning that not everything is going to change. Exploring colonialist-ridden texts like The Secret Garden in 2024 is both critical and difficult, and in this adaptation Mary Lennox is of mixed Indian and British heritage – a choice which feels authentic and right for the narrative, and allows India to be brought into the story in a smoother way. The creation of Mary’s third aunt also allows hints at the future of India’s independence without distracting from the original themes of the book. It’s a mystical, heartwarming and empowering evening, with each member of the audience taking a bit of magic home with them.

Sophia Moss
Images: Alex Brenner

The Secret Garden is at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre from 15^th June until 20^th July 2024. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.

Watch the trailer for The Secret Garden here: