The year is 1911 and young Mary Lennox awakes one morning in India to discover that her parents, and in fact, everyone she knows in the English compound in Bombay, has died of cholera.  This plague is re-created in the very first scene of the Playhouse production, as party guests succumb one by one as a chorus of "ghost" children (the youngest victims of the disease) present each one of them with the symbolic red handkerchief, thus spreading the cholera epidemic.  These ghosts from young Mary's past appear continually throughout the story, in dream and memory sequences guiding her in the present.  Mary is a spoiled and lonely child who is haunted by the past.  She is sent to live at Misselthwaite Manor, the distant Yorkshire England home of her equally haunted Uncle Archibald.  There Mary makes friends with several of the estate servants, but she is a thorn in the side of her Uncle's brooding brother, Dr. Neville Craven, whose devotion to the care of Archibald's invalid son Colin masks his darker intentions. The estate also contains a garden, locked and forbidden to all since the death of Colin's mother.  When Mary finds the key to the abandoned and deteriorated garden, her dedication to reviving it brings about the emotional healing of those around her.  There, amid the starting blooms and splendid fragrances of a no longer secret garden, Mary, Archibald and Colin all stop living in the past and discover that what they really need in life is each other.  As this new living family comes together, the ghosts, no longer needed, depart one by one at peace.
Directed by Ginny Bishop, the cast of "The Secret Garden" includes Tom Crutcher, Ron Bouffard, Jamie Lupien, Shannon Howard, Courtney Chaney, Sophia Thayer, Nate Friant, Emily Moore, Robo Bishop, Jean Hunt, Mary Linda Rapelye, Roger Marcotte, George Bishop, Judy Bebout, Suzanne Jones, Matt Withee, Ben Row, Jay Lewis, Tom Dewey, Jeremiah Haley, Caitlin Cronk, Rylee Doiron, Anna Sullivan, Nick Mirabile, Dana Greenleaf, Evie Greenleaf, Maddy Sherrill, Jon Edwards, Caroline Knapp, Jessica Fish, Mae Ciampa, Dean Domeyer, Devin Domeyer, Cole Domeyer, Noelle Timberlake, Mara Gastaldo, Genevieve Taylor, Blair Best, Olivia Canny and Hailey Buthy.
A story that will delight all ages, "The Secret Garden" will be presented July 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 11 and 12 at 7:30 p.m. with one Matinee on Sunday July 6 at 2 p.m..  Tickets are $18 for adults, $12 for children twelve and under, and may be purchased at the Boothbay Playhouse Box-Office or by calling 633-3379