Enid Bagnold wrote The Chalk Garden while she was living in Rottingdean during the Fifties and set the play in a seaside location very much like her home village.

It is a period piece and has been performed many times. Despite this, it is worthy of a fresh airing because it remains a classic of British theatre.

Producer Bill Kenwright has taken a calculated risk in presenting it to modern audiences, albeit in a slightly cut version.

However, a capacity audience at the Theatre Royal received it with warmth and responded to much of the humour in the quirky dialogue.

The playwright presents us with an assortment of dysfunctional characters in the home of the imperious, wealthy and eccentric Mrs St Maugham (magnificently played by Moira Lister), who is guardian to her teenage granddaughter, Laurel.

Despairing of the girl's difficult behaviour, Mrs St Maugham advertises for a governess to deal with the problem.

The successful applicant is Miss Madrigal (Belinda Lang) who manages not only to relate to the girl but also to make the previously inhospitable chalk garden flourish.

In the course of Miss Madrigal's stay, her mysterious past is gradually revealed.

The situation comes to a head during a visit to the house by Mrs St Maugham's friend the judge (Gerald Harper).

Conspiring with Laurel (enthusiastically played by Katherine Heath) to tease out Miss Madrigal's secret is the incompetent manservant and ex-prisoner Maitland (Nickolas Grace).

An added complication is the arrival of Laurel's mother, Olivia (Lindy Alexander), whom Mrs St Maugham has prevented from seeing Laurel.

The previously submissive Olivia, newly remarried, has gained self-confidence and wishes to remove the girl from the old woman's care.

Upstairs, neither seen nor heard but giving gardening directions via the house telephone, is Mrs St Maugham's butler of 40 years who is being attended by a dour nurse (Maev Alexander).

Belinda Lang is an attractive woman whom one would not normally associate with the part of the austere Miss Madrigal. Unfortunately, director Sheridan Morley has her speak with a harsh and monotonous voice.

This play is well worth a visit not only because it is a classic piece but also to see the brilliant Moira Lister, the excellent Gerald Harper and a delightful cameo performance by Gay Lambert as a light-fingered applicant for the guardian vacancy.

Review by Peter Bailey, features@theargus.co.uk