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2008 SEASON
DIRECTOR'S NOTES
| It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place any one could imagine. The high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of climbing roses, which were so thick that they were matted together. All the ground was covered with grass of a wintry brown, and out of it grew clumps of bushes which were surely rose-bushes if they were alive. One of the things which made the place look strangest and loveliest was that climbing roses had run all over and swung down long tendrils which made light swaying curtains, and here and there they had caught at each other or at a far-reaching branch and had crept from one tree to another and made lovely bridges of themselves. Their thin grey branches and sprays looked like a sort of hazy mantle spreading over everything. It was this hazy tangle from tree to tree which made it all look so mysterious. Mary had thought it must be different from other gardens which had not been left all by themselves so long; and indeed it was different from any other place she had ever been in her life. The Secret Garden, Chapter 9 - By Frances Hodgson Burnett |
I spent the last three months in Yorkshire - and like Mary, I experienced living in a place far different from any other that I had ever been. I arrived at the beginning of the March, just when Ben Weatherstaff’s "crocuses an' snowdrops an' daffydowndillys" were first peaking their little green spikes out of the dark earth. When I left at the end of June, English rose-trees were in full bloom. Watching Yorkshire transform from a grey and rainy place to a sunny world of blue skies and green foliage, it was easy to imagine how a little girl - lonely, scared and sullen - could be drawn out of her shell by a nascent curiosity about the surrounding world.
While Mary quickly becomes an expert of all things verdant, her new curiosity, and therefore her new knowledge base isn’t just limited to the world around her. It is because of this new inquisitiveness, that Mary learns to have empathy for others - for the Robin, for her Garden, for Colin. Through this empathy, she starts to understand herself and her own heart. As a result Mary can participate in a chain of compassion - while it is her Yorkshire friends who first help Mary, she is then able to aid Colin, who in turn can help his father.
Mary’s Secret Garden offers her small community a place where they can learn about themselves, and be themselves, without judgement. This is what makes the Garden special - while the mysterious hazy mantle of grey branches offers the Garden’s first attraction - it is the space’s ability to be secluded and private which is its true value. Behind its closed door, our characters learn about the world around them, each other and themselves. Inside the garden, our characters learn about the power of love.
| To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds, and watch the renewal of life - this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do. Charles Dudley Warner |
Ashlie Corcoran, Director, The Secret Garden
2008 SEASON