FRANCES HODGSON Burnett’s much-loved children’s story The Secret Garden is among the attractions at the Galway Theatre Festival where it is being staged in a new adaptation by Moonfish Theatre Company.
First published in 1911, Burnett’s novel centres on Mary Lennox, who - after the death of her parents - is brought back to England from India as a forlorn and unwanted child, to live in her uncle’s great lonely house on the moors. Then one day she discovers the key to a secret garden and, like magic, her life begins to brighten in so many ways.
Moonfish’s Ionia Ní Chroinín outlined some of the features that prompted the company to engage with the work.
“It’s a book I really loved as a child and it really stuck in my memory,” she says. “The more I read it the more I realised it had a lot of relevance for adults as well as children; the stories in it are universal and have appeal to all ages - and that’s something we aspire to achieve with Moonfish.
“It’s also quite a magical book even though it doesn’t incorporate sorcery or anything like that. It’s magical in the sense that it deals with the unknown, the secret, and places the children go where no-one can follow them. I think theatre can do that as well, create that kind of magic onstage so I thought it was relevant.
“I also felt the book has a message that is important in this day and age because it deals a lot with the healing powers of nature. These days when we’re hearing so much about global warming I think that’s a very interesting message for a play to give.”
Ní Chroinín goes on to discuss some of the challenges the company encountered in adapting the material for stage presentation.
“It was quite challenging bringing it to the stage,” she says. “We decided to begin with a rehearsal process based on devising, so we all got together and lived for two weeks in this disused hostel in Kinvara that also has an old dancehall in it. It was an incredible process because we could try whatever we wanted, we were just exploring what we could do with the text.
“When you’re working with a book it’s so difficult to decide what to keep and what to let go. It can also be hard to imagine it working without the narrator’s voice - initially we thought that maybe we would use an onstage narrator - but if you decide to do a book onstage I think you have to get rid of the narrator.
“So we explored lots of different methods of getting it away from the litera,l and we finally achieved that just through giving ourselves the space to carry out that exploration. We also decided in the end to do it without a director because we have a company all of whom have the same vision so we could work with each other on an equal basis.
“At the end of the devising process we wrote a script and we’ve come up with a piece of theatre that hopefully is based more on movement and imagery and lighting than text.”
The production features a sextet of performers drawn from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales; Ionia Ní Chroinín, Joanne Cummins, Libby Christensen, Orla de Bhaldraithe, Grace Kiely, and Una Ní Fhlannagain who provides live musical accompaniment on harp. One further intriguing touch to the production is that each of the actors take turns at portraying the character of Mary Lennox throughout the play.
Moonfish’s production of The Secret Garden promises to weave a thrilling, magical, tale of hope and wonder that will draw its audience into a mysterious world of hidden places, where anything is possible.
The Secret Garden will be staged at Nuns Island theatre on Saturday October 24 at 4pm. For tickets contact the Town Hall on
091 - 569777.
