Customer Reviews

The Secret Garden (Radio Theatre)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm giving this version 3 stars, as a sort of compromise with my kids, who both enjoyed it... I thought the production quality was fine, but the adaptation itself was very poor.

First, the story is changed to a first person narrative where Mary (now an old woman) tells the story. This might have been an acceptable framing technique, but changing the entire story to first person for no clear reason was awfully annoying. I would have far preferred a simple narrator and fewer changes to the text itself.

There was also a lot of "interpretation" that went far beyond the original text. I felt this version was "talking down to" me and my children, as if we couldn't possibly understand the story as written. ... Now I disagree with the previous reviewer who felt this version inserted Christian themes that had not existed in the original. On the contrary, I thought on that level it was quite close to the original. The only mention of anything religious is the scene in which the children sing the Doxology ("Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.") which was pulled exactly from the novel.

My other objection was that none of the characters were particularly "hard" in the beginning. Mary, Mrs. Medlock, Ben Weatherstaff, etc, were all pretty darn sympathetic right from the beginning. Seeing them come to life is far less effective when they all seemed to be more or less alive to begin with. I wanted more change, more growth... I didn't need kinder, gentler characters with which to begin the story.

Over all it does follow the story pretty closely, but I felt keenly the loss of some of the original language and feel of the novel. I had enjoyed the Focus on the Family adaptations of the Chronicles of Narnia, but wish I hadn't spent money on this one.

Focus on the Family puts on the best Radio Theatre Productions - they're vivid and beautiful. The Secret Garden was one of those "beautiful" productions, truly excellent.

Even though I am a senior citizen, THE SECRET GARDEN has always been a favorite book of mine. The Radio Theater presentation is delightful and I have enjoyed listening to it in my car. Will definitely be sharing this with my Great Granddaughter.

This kept me reading and I loved it. It killed me when ever I got to a good part I need to stop reading because it was the end of reading class. This book starts out sad but as the book went on the girl in the story was better then ever before.
Mary a girl who lived in India had some hard times since her parents had just died and she needed somewhere to go. She had to go to this place close to the moor This place was huge. She thought there must be thousands of rooms. She was right. In the middle of the night she gets up and walks around and hears some one crying and she goes through every room but still could not find that person. One day she did find him and his name was Colin. He was just a boy and thought he was a hunch back one. Mary loved it outside and she found a garden but inside the garden she was digging and found a key. She also found the door that goes with it. Her friend Dickon is helping fix it and it looks great. But she does eventually tell Colin and he wants to see it but Dickon needs to wheel him outside. As the days went on Colin decided he didn't need a wheel chair any more and soon started walking and running slowly and then racing. Colin's father was always so sad and then he came home and saw Colin walking and he thought it was a amazing and he was proud to call him his son.
This book is good for some one who likes to wait for surprises and likes gardens as well as happy endings from sad beginnings.

Beautiful story with a great cast! Made my car ride fly by!

The Secret Garden is a wonderful classic tale. I've read the original book, and seen two different movie productions of it. This "radio theater" version, however, is different. Apparently produced by Focus on the Family, it brings religion into a story that wasn't originally religious. To read the original, you wouldn't think of it as "Biblical" at all. What if Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island was rewritten so that Long John Silver viewed his piracy as an allegory for doing Christ's work in an imperfect world, and started carrying on about the Holy Spirit? This is not so different from what has been done with this Secret Garden version. For some, this could be a plus, but in case you are in the "other" category, let the buyer beware.

Over the years, I have collected several versions of Secret Garden from various internet bookstores. This production, beautifully done by Focus on Family, is by far the best version I have ever heard. The narrator, using first person in her narration, effectively weaves in the story smoothly. And the original story and sequences of story are well kept so that it can be easily followed with the text. Another good thing about this cd is in its cover. The audio actors and actresses are properly introduced and thus given its listeners the first hand knowledge about who is who on this wonderful sound production. Keep up the good works! Focus on Family