Cast Unequal To Difficult Play

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30511, 5 August 1964, Page 18

Cast Unequal To Difficult Play

Although it was never completely convincing, the performance last night by the Riccarton Players of “The Chalk Garden” had a sufficient number of satisfying moments to warrant audience support during the coming week.

The cast had rehearsed the play thoroughly, with commendable attention to nuances of timing in movement and dialogue. Where these failed to convince the fault appeared to lie with the understandably limited ability of the cast to cope with the rigorous demands of this unusual play. “The Chalk Garden" is a delicate blend of high comedy and morality, with a superficial coating of symbolism: the unyielding chalk soil is paralleled by unresponsive lives without love. Last night the players slipped at times into burlesque and melodrama, thus spoiling the balance of the play. The play is built on crises —past, present and projected. Joan Wilkinson, as Miss Madrigal, was most successful in building up the tension, but disappointed a little in her handling of the climaxes. Mrs St. Maugham (Taura Henderson) was not as flamboyant as one expected, although she gave many of her lines with sensitive appreciation of their implication. Robert Smith, as the manservant, was too farcical to suit the play’s atmosphere. and his enunciation was not always clear; for all that, he showed promise as an actor. The disturbed and dispossessed adolescent. Laurel. was caueht in facial expression and wild animal movement by Toni Huggett but she lacked emotional resourcefulness.

The set was most unlikely —not only did its artificiality clash with the impressive realism of the garden outside, but also its tawdriness (wallpaper, furniture) spoilt the atmosphere of a once glorious past. Failure to use the decor and costuming to reinforce the characterisations of the play marred what was in other respects a creditable production by the producer, Mr Derek Gunn.