Outdoor Stage Adaptation of THE SECRET GARDEN Comes to Pitlochry Festival Theatre This Summer

Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s outdoor Amphitheatre will once again to be the location for the return of Elizabeth Newman’s acclaimed 2023 adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. 

When orphaned Mary Lennox comes to live at her uncle’s great house on the Yorkshire Moors, she finds it full of secrets. At night, she hears crying down one of the long corridors. She follows the sound to discover her cousin Colin, who has spent his entire life in bed, unable to walk. 

One day, Mary finds a key that leads her to a garden kept locked for years and completely overgrown. Mary and her friend Dickon nurse the garden back to life, bringing joy back to the house and those living there. 

Elizabeth Newman’s acclaimed adaptation celebrates the power of transformation and healing through nature. The Amphitheatre is the perfect setting for one of the most delightful and enduring classics of British literature.

First published in 1911, Frances Hodgson Burnett’s much-loved novel continues to appeal to readers of all ages, and regularly appears in the Top 10 of all-time favourite children’s literature, making this wonderful production perfect for the whole family this Summer.

Performed in Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s outdoor Amphitheatre, nestled in the Theatre’s Explorers Garden, the magical production’s cast will feature Irene Allan (Wilf, Traverse Theatre and Red Dust Road, National Theatre of Scotland) as Mrs Medlock; Oliver Cookson (A Streetcar Named Desire and The Secret Garden, Pitlochry Festival Theatre) as Ben; Theo Diedrick (Sleeping Beauty, Theatr Clwyd and The True Adventures of Marian and Robin Hood, The Barn Theatre) as Mr Craven; Myles Miller (Alice In Wonderland, Liverpool Everyman Playhouse and Beautiful The Carole King Musical, Curve and UK Tour) as Robin; Wendy Paver (The Blonde Bombshells of 1943 and Summer Holiday, Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Footloose, UK tour) as Martha; and David Rankine (The Fair Maid of the West, Royal Shakespeare Company and Kidnapped, National Theatre of Scotland) as Dickon; Elizabeth Rowe (Made in Dagenham, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch / New Wolsey Theatre and One Man Two Guvnors, Nuffield Theatres Southampton) as Mary and Luke Thornton (The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole the Musical, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and Summer Holiday, Pitlochry Festival Theatre) as Colin. All other roles will be played by the cast.

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