Theater review: 'The Secret Garden'

“The Secret Garden” is working its charms at the Manatee Players. And I mean charms in the magical, not the cutesy sense.

The musical is an adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 children’s classic; Marsha Norman wrote the lyrics and script; Lucy Simon composed the music. The core story has the weird resonance of a fairytale or a dream from one of Carl Jung’s notebooks.

Once upon a time, cholera wiped out a wealthy British household in India. Only one child survived: Mary (Samantha Crawford). Her hunchbacked uncle Archibald (Kenn Rapczynski) took her in to his neglected mansion in the wuthering lowlands of North Yorkshire. After that, he almost never sees her.

Archibald’s a recluse who’s been mourning the loss of his wife, Lily (Sarah Cassidy), for a decade and neglecting his son Colin (Judah Woomert), a sickly child confined to bed. Mary arrives to this foul household in a perpetual foul mood. But her mood shifts when she learns of a secret garden concealed in a hedge maze at the heart of the estate. The garden was Lily’s pride and joy; Archibald locked the door and threw away the key when she died.

Through magical means, Mary discovers that bringing the garden back to life will break the spell of grief gripping her family. Her allies on this mission include two living souls: Martha (Kaliska Wiley), a no-nonsense nanny, and her brother Dickon (Cole Kornell), a nature mystic with a divining staff. (Dickon fits the archetype of the Green Man to a T. You expect the stage to sprout with flowers when he taps it.) On top of that, Mary has an army of ghosts on her side. Living or dead, they all want her to get back to the garden. Her enemies include her other uncle, Neville (Steve Dawson), and grief itself.

Norman (the playwright of the not-so-life-affirming “Night Mother”) has a keen ear for dialog and a sharp eye for character. Most of the play’s action is internal and psychological: a war between life and death in the battlefield of the mind. She captures that battle vividly. Simon (the sister of Carly Simon) wrote some fine compositions, evoking British folk music in some Jethro Tull-esque numbers, and the music of the subcontinent in others. Musical director Rick Bogner is up to Simon’s polyphonic complexity.

This large-cast production brings the musical’s well-drawn characters to life (or afterlife). Some highlights: Crawford carries the opening night on her 13-year-old shoulders—and it’s refreshing to finally see an orphan who doesn’t start out plucky and optimistic. (Emma Devine plays the role on alternate nights.) Rapczynski gets into the skin of the brooding Archibald—a long lost cousin of Bronte’s Heathcliff, perhaps. Woomert actually makes you like his dislikable character. Dawson subtly portrays a man who thinks he’s a nice guy—but isn’t. Kornell is always a crowd-pleaser as the wide-eyed, riddle-rhyming nature boy.

Director/choreographer Rick Kerby’s rapid-paced production pulls you in to Mary’s dark descent to Wonderland—a haunted realm where living and dead are divided by a paper-thin veil. Ken Mooney’s non-literal staging adds to the creepy discontinuity: his sets mutate and whirl around each other, evoking a not-too-solid world. Becky Evans’ costumes are historically accurate for the corporeal and all-white and surreal for the ghosts. Joseph P. Oshry’s lighting is suitably haunting. Musical director Rick Bogner is a match for the polyphonic complexity of Simon’s music. The actor/singers usually are. To be fair, it’s a demanding, often operatic score.

This is an extremely ambitious production, weaving a complex tapestry around the simple story at its heart. That story isn’t kid stuff. Supernatural trappings aside, this is a tale of love, loss, death and redemption. Today, we’d say Mary, Archibald and Colin were struggling with PTSD. But today, we’d probably change the subject. The Edwardians had a morbid streak—which is another way of saying they faced stuff we don’t like to face. “The Secret Garden” is nothing less than a war of life against death. The Manatee Players take you right into the thick of it.

And, in case you were wondering, life defeats death. Yes, there’s a happy ending. I figure that’s no surprise. But that happy ending is earned.

Go into this musical with an open heart and an open mind. Pay attention.

You won’t be disappointed.

IF YOU GO:

“The Secret Garden” runs through Oct. 4 at the Manatee Performing Arts Center, 502 3rd Ave. W., Bradenton. Call 748-5875 or visit www.manateeplayers.com for more information.