Tom Wentworth on Reimagining The Secret Garden with a Disability-Led Adaptation

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“It’s the best thing about making any art for me, but particularly making theatre – it’s a big collaboration, you cannot do it on your own!"

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Writer Tom Wentworth sat down with BroadwayWorld to discuss his new disability-led adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett ’s The Secret Garden, coming to the Egg Theatre at Theatre Royal Bath in July. He spoke about how you can both honour and reframe a story, theatre being a political act, and how important collaboration is to his creative practise.

Congratulations on this new production of The Secret Garden, Tom! How has the process been bringing the vision to life thus far?

It's been terribly exciting - I mean, we've been working on it since, I think, 2022. You might not want to quote me on that [laughs], but for some time, anyway. The idea originally came from our director Stephanie Kempson - we'd worked together on a production before, and had a lovely time doing that, and we thought "what might we like to do next?" and got talking about our favourite books as children and The Secret Garden came up and we had really interesting conversations.

The Egg theatre did a retreat where they were looking for writer/director pairs for classic book adaptations - originally they were looking for a Christmas show - we went in and pitched and the rest, as they say is history. The whole thing came out of our existing working relationship and shared love of the book!

What was it about the novel – I understand it was a favourite of yours when you were a child – that made you want to return to it as an adult and adapt it for the stage?

Yes - we wanted to re-examine the book with a contemporary lens for children - as a child I had spent a lot of time in hospital and the book was a captivating story and a source of great comfort - but then I felt rather disappointed by the ending of the book, in that I felt it never represented me as a disabled child, or indeed as a disabled person.

Stephanie felt very much the same; we wanted to re-examine it as an anti-ableist, anti-racist text, and look at how we can make it accessible for children and their adults, and that's a really exciting and challenging proposition: having a cast of disabled and neurodivergent actors, a different ending, and finding something exciting in Colin and Mary's story - reclaiming Colin as a disabled person and Mary as a character with autism. It immediately felt quite fizzy and exciting, and the venue and our creative team have been on board with the vision from the very first moment!

It's become far more than a play in and of itself, actually. We're in this, obviously to entertain young people and make them think, but the other big angle of the show is nature and how that can be tremendously important for your health, but how if you physically can't get out into nature, that can be brought in to you - it's become part of a whole "Secret Gardens" project with schools and all sorts of other places and spaces that involve young people - encouraging them to be outside, and be gardeners in all sorts of senses.

It's also going to be streamed in children's hospitals across the southwest, with a QR code to access the most wonderful box of materials so that children have a playful time and access to the show. One of the reasons I wanted to do this piece was thinking of myself as a child and all the Colins and Marys out there now - children who are bed-bound and need entertainment.

Leading on from that, has the way you’ve looked at the book changed between childhood and adulthood as you’ve been shaping the show – have you learned or discovered anything new through the process?

Absolutely - first off, I hadn't remembered how sad it was; I don't think I picked that up. I'm so glad to have had the experience and interrogate it - it was hard because The Secret Garden is not a long book - but one of the good things about that is we could invent what we wanted for the second half, and do some of the things we've been talking about.

The book itself is not as rich and complex as one might like, so that gives me, as the dramatist, license to do some of that work. It's still a wonderful, transporting, gorgeous story, and the characters are great friends, which is wonderful. It's really a story about grief- Frances Hodgson Burnett was recovering from the loss of a child when she wrote it, and now as an adult, I was struck by how much that grief comes out on the page, and even though this play doesn't quite reflect that in the same way, we've tried hard to capture the spirit of the book - making something complex but also very very hopeful!"

Adapting one form for another medium has always fascinated me – is there a specific way you approach that craft – is it hard when a book is as familiar and beloved as The Secret Garden , for example, choosing what gets adapted and what doesn’t?

Oh yes - what's in and what's out is terribly hard! Within the time frame that we have available, you can't do everything, and that's why I'm so glad we've taken some big swings, you could call it - and changed things, so it does feel fresh and different but still retains that exciting spirit of the novel; I think the child characters in particular will still be recognisable!

You also want to acknowledge the wonderful work of the entire creative team - once you get into that rehearsal room, the work is really on to make sure that everyone has their moment - I've been saying to everyone: "come for the cast, but also the puppets" they are fantastic and I've been making room for them to have a bit more time!

To answer your question seriously, it's very hard, and can be a challenge. In a way, it's much easier if you, as the writer, don't have such a close relationship with the book. In this case, I did, so I had to work, psychologically to distance myself and put a different hat on - be Tom the writer, instead of Tom the reader.

As a disabled theatregoer and someone who is passionate about the industry, thank you for leaning into the piece being disability-led – you and I could talk for hours about why representation matters so much – is there a difference in the nuance around those conversations when creating theatre for families compared to other audiences or the work you’re adapting and why it is striking to look at it from that lens?

My initial feeling to this question is no - simply because you're always trying to communicate really complex ideas, and you will know this yourself - talking about accessibility, disability - within art, I would argue is quite a political act - and children are whip smart, and family audiences are often more - in tune with that I'd say, a lot of the time! Kids are curious; they ask questions, and we've positioned our wonderful Mary in the show as the question asker.

We've got some really complex ideas about the social model of disability, about health and wellbeing, etc but it's all wrapped in this story about friendship; how we make friends. We haven't dumbed it down in any way, and I hope the adults will be able to keep up, in a way, because the reaction we've had from our young people on the project more widely - our Green Guardians who are looking after the sustainability aspect, and the young theatre makers - they soon tell us if we're not being complex, interesting or brave enough!

You’re working with Stephanie Kempson , directing this version – how has that been? I imagine it takes a tremendous amount of trust to let others in on an idea and, therefore, quite daunting, but it can be really exciting too.

It’s the best thing about making any art for me, but particularly making theatre – it’s a big collaboration, you cannot do it on your own! Maybe there’s a direct link between me being that boy in a hospital bed and knowing all your friends are out there, that wanting to be in a “gang” – I do wonder if that’s one of the reasons why I write for theatre and other drama – you’re always in the cool gang if you’re with your collaborators, so it’s lovely to be working with Steph – this one’s less about my vision and more about ours because we came up with the idea together.

We had, immediately, a very good shared idea of what we wanted to do with it, and how it would be and it’s gone on from there! Even with the script, you know, I obviously have written it, but we collaborate on that, and that sense of play has, and is continuing throughout this process, and I’m glad. Our whole company are brilliant at that – feeding in their ideas and that’s so vital – you have to play with everyone in the room, you know? Working with our climate dramaturg, Hannah, on the nature aspects has been fantastic, and our access dramaturg, Kate, has been brilliant at helping us draw out some of the more knotty disability and neurodivergence conversations.

Finally – can you describe the show and why people should come and see it in a single sentence?

Oh cool – this is a tricky one! What would I say? The Secret Garden is about hope, the outdoors, children making the world a better place – come and see it and be hugely entertained, and as I said before – come for the puppets!

Read our guest post from artistic director of The Egg, Kate Cross, here.

The Secret Garden runs at The Egg Theatre at Theatre Royal Bath from 2 - 26 of July

Main Photo Credit: Steph Morris

Promotional Photo Credits: Helena M

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/Interview-It-Is-About-Hope-Writer-Tom-Wentworth-on-reframing-a-classic-and-how-collaboration-breathes-new-life-into-THE-SECRET-GARDEN-20260622)._