'Chalk Garden' at Tufts Arena; Karen Johnson in Starring Role

One of the dangers of presenting plays that no one ever presents is that you may find out that there is a very good reason for not presenting them. Twice this season Tufts Arena Theatre has made this embarrassing discovery. Their production this week, The Chalk Garden by Enid Bagnold, is a lot less esoteric than their last two shows, but it is also a much better play.

"Chalk Garden" is the story of a struggle between life and sterility which is carried on at two levels. On one level the struggle is between the 70-year-old Mrs. St. Maugham and the woman she hires as a companion for her sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Laurel. On the other level, the struggle is between the companion, Miss Madrigal, and Mrs. St. Maugham's old, and now infirmed, butler, Mr. Pinkbell, who never appears on stage. Since the companion is at the focus of both of these quarrels, it is on the strength of the performance of Miss Madrigal that "Chalk Garden" stands or falls, and at Tufts a girl by the name of Karen Johnson is doing a fine job.

After a rather shaky first act, Miss Johnson settled down to a thoroughly competent rendition of the difficult part. She seems to have some difficulty coping with her quieter lines, but when she is called upon to convey a strong or powerful emotion she is equal to the task.

The symbolism of "Chalk Garden" depends on the fact that for most of the play the two quarrels are equivalent. Madrigal and Pinkbell dispute for control of Mrs. St. Maugham's chalk garden. Pinkbell has always had control over it, and when Madrigal arrives she completely inverts all of Pinkbell's commands and shows signs of being able to bring life out of the almost sterile soil. Similarly, Miss Madrigal changes the way in which Laurel is being brought up. Laurel ran away to her grandmother on the night before her mother remarried. However, Miss Madrigal sees in the mother the one chance for Laurel to develop in an atmosphere of life, so she convinces her to rejoin her mother. And to unify the two situations, when Laurel leaves with her mother, Mr. Pinkbell dies.