| Synopsis: |
An Elephant in the Garden is Simon Reade's new adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's best-selling children's novel.1945. Dresden, Germany. Lizzie, her mother ? and an elephant from the zoo, flee the Allied fire-bombing in the end-game of the Second World War.Escaping the Allies' advance from the West ? and also the advancing Russian armies from the East ? this extraordinary trio of refugees meet: a downed RAF officer, cowering in a barn; a homeless school choir on the run and their Countess saviour, harbouring them from the Nazis; and the mechanised American cavalry, appearing over the horizon.It is Lizzie's story ? but Marlene, the elephant, is the heroine. Plodding, obdurate, opportunistic, loadbearing, indestructible, cheering ? Marlene embodies the stubbornness of the human will and how it will do everything to survive. |