The Chalk Garden

Genre: Drama
Opened 11 June 2008
Written: By Enid Bagnold
Directed: Michael Grandage
Cast: Penelope Wilton, Margaret Tyzack
Synopsis: Raised in a manor house beside the sea, where the flowers struggle to grow, sixteen-year-old Laurel runs wild. As her eccentric grandmother tends to the garden, Laurel's need for love forces her into a world of fantasy. But things begin to change with the sudden appointment of a governess who brings a mysterious new presence to an already dysfunctional household.

What the popular press had to say.....
NICHOLAS DE JONGH for THE EVENING STANDARD says, "I was enchanted and amused, amazed and stirred..." SAM MARLOWE for THE TIMES says, "Enid Bagnold's play is wonderfully startling...Bagnold's writing is extravagantly eloquent and irresistibly vivid...This is a delicious treat: riotously funny, delicately poignant and as light as petals on the breeze." HEATHR NEILL for THE STAGE says, "Beautifully calibrated production." QUENTIN LETTS for THE DAILY MAIL says, "The best thing I have seen this past year." PAUL TAYLOR for THE INDEPENDENT says, "Michael Grandage's superlative revival at the Donmar is a masterpiece of mood-control as it pulls you into the volatile, moment-by-moment life of the drama." MICHAEL BILLINGTON for THE GUARDIAN says, "I cannot imagine a snappier or more sensitively acted version." CHARLES SPENCER for THE DAILY TELEGRAPH says, "This is an exemplary staging of a play that combines tart wit with a moving understanding that damaged lives can sometimes be repaired."

External links to full reviews from popular press
The Independent
The Guardian
The Times
Daily Telegraph