The Garden Plays
The Garden Plays was inspired by my love of gardens and history. I wanted to write three one-act plays, all set in gardens at different points in time, using the same four actors in each. The first play, Barbarians at the Gate, was set in a Roman garden in 408 A.D. when the barbarians were about to invade the city. The second play, Lady Cuddleshank’s Folly, was set in England in 1806 when the English feared an imminent invasion by Napolean. The third, Some Enchanted Evening, was set in contemporary New York. In 1992, the three-act version was given its first reading by members of the Royal Shakespeare Company with Susannah York playing the lead female roles. It was frankly thrilling. But a production didn’t materialize until 1993, and then in Portland, and with the second act deleted (it made the play too long). This was a small, beautiful, and quite powerful production in a lovely little theater located in what had been the Masonic Temple (now part of the Portland Art Museum). The two plays—a garden in Rome in 408 A.D. and a garden in crack-infested New York in 1993—used the same four actors playing ancient and contemporary characters.
As a sidenote here: I recently rewrote “Some Enchanted Evening”—the New York garden—to reflect contemporary political events in the age of Trump. It’s now called “Sanctuary.” This new version of The Garden Plays hasn’t been produced yet.
Leigh Clark as Cornelia
Steve Smith as Aeneas, the Roman tax collector in Barbarians at the Gate
Tom Beckett as Rufus, a Roman slave, in Barbarians at the Gate
Leigh Clark and Farah Fobes in Barbarians at the Gate
Farah Fobes and Tom Beckett in Some Enchanted Evening
Farah Fobes as Julia, Steve Smith as Aeneas in Barbarians at the Gate
Steve Smith and Tom Beckett in Barbarians at the Gate
Barbarians at the Gate, a Roman garden, 408 A.D.
Some Enchanted Evening, a New York garden, 1993
