About the Play:

Everything in the Garden has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female/Female scenes.

Everything in the Garden is a full-length drama adapted by Edward Albee from an earlier British play by Giles Cooper. The story of a status-conscious suburban couple who has everything in their marriage but enough money. When Mrs. Toothe makes a titillating proposal, we see just how far the pair will go to reach their financial dreams. Everything in the Garden is a biting, dark comedy about greed that will leave your audience with much to consider.

Everything in the Garden is a morality tale, set in the mid-1960s, where nothing is exactly as it seems. Jenny and Richard have moved out to the suburbs in search of the good life, the very expensive house, the country tennis club and of course private school education for their fifteen-year-old son. However, the only thing standing in the way of their happiness is a lack of money. Richard doesn't want Jenny to work but Jenny can't live like her neighbours and country club friends unless she has more money. Jenny is then visited by a mysterious Mrs. Toothe who offers Jenny a job and lots of money. It's unclear what the job is and Jenny refuses, though she takes a pile of $100 bills from Mrs. Toothe and she and Richard go out to a fancy dinner. Jenny's beautiful garden means the world to her and she dreams of one day having a greenhouse. She swoons with thoughts of having the kind of money that would buy such luxuries and she gives in and takes the job. What seems to be an easy solution rears it's head to a world of conflict and self-interest. The rest of the play revolves around the big reveal: Jenny's new job, Richard's reaction and how it comes to consume their lives, their love and their future. While we all struggle with a doubtful economic future, Everything in the Garden lampoons the upper-middle-class suburbs where conformity and a hypocritical show of respectability are all that count.

Everything in the Garden premiered in 1962 in a Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production at the New Arts Theatre Club in London. It was originally written by Giles Cooper, who was killed before he had the chance to retool it for an American audience. Edward Albee was chosen to complete this transition and his adaptation premiered in 1967 at the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway in New York City. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 5 female, 5 male, 1 teenage boy

What people say:

"…the first important American play of the season." — New York Post

"…altogether absorbing and original." — New York Newsday

"Mr. Albee is not merely our most hopeful playwright, our most promising playwright, our most interesting playwright – he is, quite simply, our best playwright." — The New York Times

About the Playwright:

Giles Cooper (1918-1966) is widely recognized as having been Britain's greatest radio dramatist. He also wrote for the stage, having particular success with his play Everything in the Garden, a dark comedy of middle-class suburban hypocrisy and greed.

Edward Albee (1928-2016) was an American playwright. Widely considered the foremost American dramatist of his generation, he wrote and directed some of the best plays in contemporary American theatre. Three of his plays have received Pulitzer Prizes, and two won a Tony Award for best play. He was awarded the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1980, and in 1996 he received both the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts. In 2005 he was awarded the special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.