Review: The Garden of Words at Park Theatre

Tuesday, 15th August 2023 at Park Theatre, London.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Reviewer: Emma Dorfman

The Garden of Words has been in development for nine years, and it shows. The piece is a clever collection of poetic textures that convey the realities of communal sorrow in a big city. This flavour of sorrow, though, is not weighty; it’s light and refreshing. I was expecting a piece that explores such issues to weigh heavy on my heart, but Garden somehow pulls it off, allowing the audience to empathise with this (very large) cast of characters with both grace and meaning.

The Garden of Words is an adaptation (by Alexandra Rutter and Susan Momoko Hingley) of Makoto Shinkai’s anime feature of the same name. While I’ve not seen Shinkai’s version, I imagine it’s quite similar to its stage adaptation in terms of form: a Love Actually-esque, ensemble piece in which seven characters are all seemingly interconnected. My first thought on this: how could we possibly invest fully into all seven characters in under two hours? But, once again, they somehow pull it off.

Without getting into the intricately woven plot too much, what’s more important are the theatrical devices that contribute to the narrative cohesion. The set (design courtesy of Cindy Lin, Kelly Loi) is a collection of different textures: projected imagery (courtesy of KENNY) of a beautiful, leafy garden where it always rains coupled with slitted sheets of paper onto which the projected rain falls lightly.

And then there are the puppetry elements: light projections, which illuminate Takao Akizuki’s (Hiroki Berrecloth) passion for shoe design. He sketches out mock-ups of his designs throughout, to show the perspective of an unusually motivated, lost student. There is also the crow puppet, brought in by various members of the cast and a long-known symbol of sorrow, grief, and bad omens. There are the bird wings, which various characters don when they are in need of an escape or briefly lifted from the burdens of their respective lives through a simple presence.

Overall, even if it appears that The Garden of Words might be quite ‘foreign’ to western audiences, I actually had trouble not noticing the parallels and intersections to London. A city where it always rains? And everyone is just a tad bit miserable, but not terribly so? Come on… this team knows exactly what they are doing.

Much can be gained from the production regardless of where you come from or where you live. It is a piece about communal grief and sorrow. It is about connection and how we perceive our connections with others. It conveys much of what those of us who live in urban metropolises have probably felt at one point or another. As Soichiro Ito (Mark Takeshi Ota) says, ‘You’re like oil dropped into water. You won’t let anyone blend in around you’.

The Garden of Words is at the Park Theatre , London until September 9th 2023 – more information and tickets can be found here.