Tom's Midnight Garden

By David Wood from the novel by Philippa Pearce

Performed: June 2006

Quarantined in his Aunt’s and Uncle’s stuffy flat because his brother has measles, Tom is restless and bored.

Intrigued by a Grandfather clock, religiously wound by the elderly owner of the house, Mrs. Bartholomew, Tom is startled one night to hear the clock strike thirteen! Slipping out of bed he goes to what in his time is a concrete backyard, only to discover a beautiful Victorian garden of the 1880s.

He meets the unhappy orphan, Hatty, who initially is the only person who can see him, and he visits her each night at the same hour, writing enthusiastically to his brother, Peter, about his adventures. But although Tom stays the same exuberant 10-year-old, Hatty grows into a young woman during these visits. Before the story can reach its outcome, Tom has to return to his parents, but the truth is revealed in a touching denouement.

PERFORMED AT THE MEADOWSIDE LEISURE CENTRE, DUE TO A FIRE AT THE BREWHOUSE.