The Secret Garden (Open Air Theatre version) (NHB Modern Plays) (eBook)

One: The Beginning/The End

The play begins almost how it ends; with a group of people (ARCHIBALD, MRS MEDLOCK, DOCTOR CRAVEN, BEN, MARTHA, DICKON, PADMA, LATA and CHAMPA) gathered. They are not yet in the Garden – and not yet complete with MARY, COLIN and the Magic. A community finding its way to itself.

LATA. It began.

PADMA. It begins.

CHAMPA. In a garden.

LATA. The garden.

PADMA. In an English garden

LATA. at the hour where everything stills itself.

CHAMPA. Soft gold stillness

PADMA. slanting through and under branches.

LATA. The sun readying itself –

CHAMPA/LATA/PADMA. Not quite yet

LATA. to set.

CHAMPA/LATA/PADMA. And a father

LATA. Asking –

ARCHIBALD. How did this happen?

How did this begin?

Overlapping –

MEDLOCK. It begins with the girl –

DOCTOR. It begins with the boy –

MARTHA. It begins with three sisters –

DICKON. It begins with two brothers –

CAPTAIN. It begins with sickness –

BEN. It begins in Yorkshire –

PADMA. Not yet –

ARCHIBALD. It begins…

LATA. In India.

Two: British India

A British bungalow in Kolkata. 1903. Colonial luxury. A party fills the stage: dancing, wine, ‘sophistication’, the suffocating propriety of the English Raj. Everyone playing GUESTS or SERVANTS. CHAMPA, a glamourous Indian socialite, and her husband, CAPTAIN LENNOX, a British officer.

CHAMPA. It begins at a party –

CHORUS. At a party in India!

CAPTAIN. An India ruled by an English king.

DICKON. And in that India –

MEDLOCK. in 1903.

ARCHIBALD. A girl.

Hidden away from the party is MARY, being waited on by her ayah (played by PADMA). The ayah is unwell, shivering and sick, but trying to hide it.

MARY puts her arms in the air to be dressed.

Nothing happens.

MARY. Ayah, where is my dress?!

PADMA. Shall I tell a story? The one with the spoilt boy and the magic sea?

MARY. But what about the party?

PADMA. You know you’re not invited, Missie Sahib.

MARY. Go, go and ask her why.

PADMA. Missie, please. You’re never invited.

MARY. I command you to ask her!

PADMA. I am not well enough to / argue with you.

MARY. I don’t care. I don’t care about you. Or her. And I don’t care about their awful party. I don’t care about anything.

MARY storms off.

LATA. A girl named Mary Lennox.

MEDLOCK. And Mrs Lennox, how old is your darling girl now?

DICKON. Mary Lennox was never seen.

MARTHA. Mary Lennox was kept out of sight.

DOCTOR. Mary Lennox was ignored.

CHAMPA. Oh, um, seven years old.

MARTHA. Mary was ten.

DOCTOR. And where is she tonight?

CHAMPA. With her ayah. Her, uh, nanny. She was screeching all afternoon – gave me quite the headache.

CAPTAIN. Champa, I’ve just the thing for headaches.

He hands her a drink and begins to dance with her.

BEN. Mary Lennox’s mother only cared about parties.

MEDLOCK. And being the wife of a British officer.

DOCTOR. Mary Lennox’s father only cared about sending telegrams to England.

BEN. Receiving telegrams from England.

PADMA. And ruling India for England.

CAPTAIN (toasting). To England!

CHORUS. To England!

They all drink.

DOCTOR. I hear Curzon plans to slice Bengal down the middle.

CAPTAIN. Partition would certainly quieten all this nationalistic chatter. We fully support it, don’t we, Champa?

CHAMPA. Of course, darling.

DOCTOR. Hear, hear.

As they toast and cheer, a terrible cry is hard from off. The LENNOXES assume this is MARY.

CHAMPA (toasting). To the Viceroy!

CHORUS (toasting). To the Viceroy!

CAPTAIN (hearing the cry, to a SERVANT). Will someone quiet that insufferable child?

MARY appears – this is mortifying to the Lennoxes.

MARY. Where has my ayah gone?

CHAMPA. She’s supposed to be sleeping!

MARY. Why is no one looking after me?

CAPTAIN. For goodness’ sake!

The SERVANTS attempt to shoo MARY away, but she darts around them. She might kick one.

DOCTOR. Never seen

MARTHA. Kept out of sight

BEN. Ignored

LATA. Which had made her grow into –

CHAMPA. A spoilt little (shoy-tan) [Devil]

MARY. Why won’t the servants stop crying?

DOCTOR. Crying?

CHAMPA. Darling –

LATA runs in, as a servant.

LATA. Memshaheb, Memshaheb. (Rogue-taa chhawraachhey.) [The disease is spreading.]

CHAMPA. We are in English company!

LATA. Sahib, it’s the servants. Another has died.

ARCHIBALD. Another?! What does she mean, Lennox?

MEDLOCK. My god, is it the cholera?

CHORUS(murmuring panic). The cholera?

MARY. Where is my ayah?!

LATA. Please, Sahib, we should go to the hills.

CAPTAIN. No, no, we needn’t –

DOCTOR. The sickness will spread through the house –

MARY. But who will tell me a story? Mother?

CHAMPA. Someone take her to the nursery –

MEDLOCK. But, what shall we do?

MARY. I heard wailing.

LATA. Come, Missie Sahib.

MARY. I heard screaming. I won’t go.

CHAMPA. Darling!

CAPTAIN. Girl, drink this. If you come out of your nursery again, I will have one of the lascars drag you back inside and lock the door.

MARY drinks a glass of wine and leaves.

Well? We are not stopping a party for a couple of unwell servants! Dance!

MARY leaves and returns to her room as her parents dance and dance.

PADMA. But the Lennoxes continued to dance –

Death and disease take over the bungalow and finally, the Lennoxes collapse.

MARTHA. And the sickness continued to spread –

ARCHIBALD. And Mary slept

BEN. Fitfully

DOCTOR. Half hearing

ARCHIBALD. The hurrying sound of feet.

PADMA. The wails.

LATA. The screams.

MARTHA. And by the time she awoke

PADMA. The bungalow was perfectly –

MARY, alone, wanders amongst the ruins of the party.

MARY. Still. It’s never been so still before. It feels as if I am the only person here, the only person in the bungalow, the only person in the whole [world.]

LATA. A normal child might have cried.

ARCHIBALD. But Mary Lennox was not a normal child.

MARY. Someone will come. Someone SHALL come for me.

MARY sits, waiting, defiant.

PADMA. Hours passed

MARTHA. Whilst Mary waited

MEDLOCK. Not crying

MARTHA. For someone, for anyone to –

TWO BRITISH OFFICERS enter wearing cotton masks. They do not notice MARY.

BEN. Terrible.

DOCTOR. Everyone? Did it take everyone?

BEN. Those that didn’t think to flee. The Lennoxes should have left at the first sign of cholera. To have a party.

DOCTOR. And the little girl too?

BEN. Seems so. Quite the tragedy.

MARY. Why are you speaking about me like I’m not here?

BEN. My god! DOCTOR. Heavens!

MARY. Are you my new servants?

DOCTOR. No, miss.

MARY. Where is my mother? Why has no one come for me?

BEN. Child, there is no one left to come.

MEDLOCK. It was in that strange

MARTHA. And sudden way

PADMA. That Mary found out

LATA. She had neither father

ARCHIBALD. nor mother left

MARTHA. They had died of the cholera

PADMA. And she had been forgotten.

LATA. She was now

CHORUS. An orphan.

MARTHA. And alone.

ARCHIBALD. A normal child might have cried.

The chorus watch MARY to see if she might cry.

MARY (without so much as a sniffle). What is to become of me?

CAPTAIN, as a busy colonial official.

BEN. She was passed from soldier

MEDLOCK. To priest

MARTHA. To police officer

PADMA. To the Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata

MARY is shut outside a door and hears snatches of a conversation.

CAPTAIN. All alone, you say?

Captain Lennox’s girl? No grandparents. Rotten little thing, I heard! Out of the question! Wasn’t there an aunt?

The door is opened and MARY walks in, before she is invited.