The Lady Gardeners
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'In the Lady Garden is a hilarious and also important piece of work that we are thrilled to support, along with its fantastic company. |
Company Background
The Lady Gardeners are a unique, trailblazing theatre company made up of three older artists: Babs Horton (writer), Deborah Edgington (director) and Julia Faulkner (actor), who came together in 2022 to put women’s voices front and centre-stage and create lasting change in the way society views ageing.
As older artists they bring a wealth of life-time experiences from all walks of life. Their previous careers in health, teaching, charity and politics have given them an invaluable insight into the full spectrum of human behaviour.Growing up as daughters in the 1950s and 60s, and becoming mothers, grandmothers and caring for their elderly relatives has provided them with first-hand experience in all stages of life. They are uniquely placed to engage with audiences of all generations who want to see more people like themselves represented on stage, telling inspiring and transformative stories they can identify with.
The Lady Gardeners are a unique, trailblazing theatre company made up of three older artists: Babs Horton (writer), Deborah Edgington (director) and Julia Faulkner (actor), who came together in 2022 to put women’s voices front and centre-stage and create lasting change in the way society views ageing.
As older artists they bring a wealth of life-time experiences from all walks of life. Their previous careers in health, teaching, charity and politics have given them an invaluable insight into the full spectrum of human behaviour.Growing up as daughters in the 1950s and 60s, and becoming mothers, grandmothers and caring for their elderly relatives has provided them with first-hand experience in all stages of life. They are uniquely placed to engage with audiences of all generations who want to see more people like themselves represented on stage, telling inspiring and transformative stories they can identify with.
Who we are
Babs
Horton (writer) Babs spent her early career in teaching and was Head of English in an adolescent psychiatric unit when she started writing her debut novel, A Jarful of Angels, which won the Pendleton May First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Authors Club First Novel Award. Although she went on to become a successful novelist with seven published novels - four by Simon and Shuster – she didn’t write her first play until she was 67, which was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize. In the Lady Garden, written when she was 69 during lockdown, is her second play. She is a writing fellow for the Royal Literary Fund and has worked as a practitioner for Theatre Royal Plymouth, running writing workshops for the People’s Company and Acting Up. |
Deborah Edgington (director)
Deborah became a director eleven years ago after a long and eclectic career that started in nursing and ended up in arts and charity fundraising, with a few detours along the way. But it was in her mid 50s when her life dramatically changed and she took up a place on the short directing course at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2013. The following year she co-directed her first professional play Muswell Hill, which received rave reviews and a transfer to London’s Park Theatre. Her other directing and co-directing credits include: A Streetcar Named Desire, The Seagull, African Gothic, Black Mass, My Children! My Africa! which transferred to the Trafalgar Studios, and the opera La Bohème. She was also the co-founder of 10x10, a national playwriting festival (one of the first of its kind when it started back in 2008) which she ran for ten years. Her work has regularly garnered five and four-star national reviews and has been in The Guardian and The Stage top ticket picks. She also received a Best Director nomination for A Streetcar Named Desire. |
Julia Faulkner
(actor) Julia has been in the theatre industry since her early 20s as an actor and has performed in London’s West End and in over 13 UK tours. Recent theatre credits include Widow Twankey (Aladdin), Queen Aggravain (Once Upon A Mattress), Granny (Gangsta Granny), Georgette (One Last Waltz, Greenwich Theatre & The Bridge House), Jackie (Find Your Way Home) and multiple roles in The Little Match Girl (Theatre at the Tabard). Other theatre roles include: Sheila (Relatively Speaking), Julia (Fallen Angels), Mrs Clandon (You Never Can Tell, Broadstairs weekly rep and Shaw’s Corner), Ranyevskaya (The Cherry Orchard, The Jack Studio), Arkadina (The Seagull, tour), Bawd/Dionyza (Pericles), Witch (Macbeth), Tamora (Titus Andronicus) and the title role in Phaedra. A graduate of The Guildford School of Acting, Julia has recorded audiobooks, appeared on TV and in TV commercials and worked on two award-winning short films: The Impatient Man Who Made His Life Considerably Shorter and A Matter of Choice. In 2023, Julia directed Dal Segno at the Theatre at The Tabard, Chiswick. |
Previous track record
The Lady Gardeners have already achieved a number of successes since forming in 2022 with their debut production of In the Lady Garden.
Awards and nominations:
The Lady Gardeners have already achieved a number of successes since forming in 2022 with their debut production of In the Lady Garden.
Awards and nominations:
- In the Lady Garden was one of the seven Edinburgh National Partnership shows supported by the Pleasance in association with the Theatre Royal Plymouth, to receive a four-week run at the Pleasance Courtyard at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
- The play was shortlisted for the 2024 POPCORN Writing Award.
- It was a Brighton Fringe Excellence Award Nominee (Edinburgh Fringe 2024).
- The play has been put forward by the Pleasance for the 2025 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
- In the Lady Garden was originally performed in The Lab at the Theatre Royal Plymouth in 2022. It sold-out within a couple of weeks of going on sale (and three months before opening night). As a result, an extra performance was added, which sold-out immediately.
- In 2024, In the Lady Garden returned to Theatre Royal Plymouth for previews ahead of its Edinburgh Fringe debut. This time performing in The Drum (the theatre’s 200 seat venue). It was one of The Drum’s fastest selling shows and the first sold-out show since the pandemic. An extra performance was added to meet the demand.
- It went on to play to sell-out audiences at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024.