The Edna Walling Play
Performed as part of the Edna Walling Experience at Mawarra, in Sherbrooke, Victoria, Australia.
Mawarra is a heritage listed garden, designed in the 1930s by horticulturist Edna Walling (1895 – 1973).
Edna Walling (1896-1973) was Australia’s most iconic and celebrated garden designer. A woman of strong character and exceptional brilliance, she dressed in jodhpurs, jacket and tie while creating gardens that offer extraordinary enchantment to this day.
Award-winning Australian playwright Tee O’Neill (Barassi) brings Walling vividly to life in this play set in the garden that the gardener herself called her greatest achievement, ‘a symphony of steps and beautiful trees.’
Back by popular demand, it’s a family outing that promises to entertain and delight. Step back in time, see the play, explore the famous 1920s garden with its stone pathways, camellia, rhododendron and azalea walks and reflective pond, bring your children, your dog and a picnic… and throw some potatoes! Why? Come along to find out!
Insightful, entertaining, informational and well researched. Info, laughs and a very clever portrayal of an amazing woman in Australia's gardening history. Tee O'Neill is exceptional."
Back by popular demand, The Edna Walling Play has a new season coming up on April 23 & 24, 2022.
For brief excerpts of the play, as well as some different aspects of the iconic Mawarra garden - a garden that Walling herself called a 'symphony of steps and beautiful trees' - see the video below. Viewing time: 2mins 30 seconds.
Much laughter and learning in one of Australia’s most beautiful gardens."
“My play about Edna Walling was commissioned by the Edna Walling Experience to be performed in one of her most famous gardens: Mawarra.
Walling recreated natural woodland gardens with Italianate and English influences. Her designs were groundbreaking in many ways.
She created gardens throughout Australia, and described Mawarra as her greatest achievement. This play celebrates her genius in the very garden she designed and created.
This below is one of my favourite scenes. When designing a woodland, she would famously throw a bucket of potatoes in the air, and then plant the trees where the potatoes landed. Here is Edna about to throw her bucket.” – Tee O’Neill
Edna makes the audience stand back, and she throws the potatoes (see the four-legged audience member below, who is particularly interested in where each potato landed!)
