Puppets bring whimsy to updated ‘Secret Garden’ set in the Pacific Northwest

Olympia Family Theater is launching its season Friday, Sept. 30, with a world-premiere adaptation of the beloved classic “The Secret Garden,” about a girl whose life is transformed after her parents die and she’s sent to live with an unfamiliar uncle in an unfamiliar place.

In Mabelle Reynoso’s update of the story, though, that unfamiliar place is the Pacific Northwest, and protagonist Mary is a punk-rock-loving Latinx tween who grew up in Los Angeles.

“She tells everyone she’s a city girl,” Reynoso said. “The Pacific Northwest is not her jam at all. She doesn’t want to go. She’s very skeptical.”

Oh, and the garden of the title doesn’t merely have a magical effect on Mary (Daniela Acuna, who recently graduated from Tumwater High School), friend Dee (Beckham Barehand, a junior at Tumwater High) and cousin Carlos (Oliver Garcia, a senior at Olympia High School). This secret garden is magical, inhabited by native plants and animals who move and sometimes speak — puppets created by Olympia’s String & Shadow Puppet Theater.

The fantastical nature of this adaptation of “Garden” is a hallmark of the work of Reynoso, who blurred the lines between TV, dreams and reality in “Lucha Libre,” one of the “Fully Vaxxed” plays the theater produced in the spring.

“A lot of magic comes into my work,” said Reynoso, who lives in San Diego. “People talk about magic realism, but what is magical is real to us. In the Latinx culture, magic is real, and real is magic.”

She brought that perspective, along with her experience growing up in Los Angeles and the challenges of her childhood, to this production.

“I did not realize this until I was well into writing the script, but I had a lot in common with Mary,” Reynoso told The Olympian. “I can definitely relate to the character.”

The modern Mary relies on both humor and punk-rock music — some of it recorded by Reynoso’s musician friends — to cope with the challenges in her life.

Despite the many new elements in the show, the playwright said, the story retains both the structure and the heart of the original novel.

“I’m grateful that Olympia Family Theater took a chance on this story that is ‘The Secret Garden’ and isn’t ‘The Secret Garden,’” she said. “It honors the original text, but it’s something very different.”

The puppets are a big part of that difference, as those who’ve seen String & Shadow’s past work know. The troupe’s original shows have the feel of fairy tales or folk tales set in worlds inhabited by giant geese and stylishly dressed fungi. (The fungi, by the way, do make an appearance in “Garden” along with a robin, a deer and other new creations.)

“I’m pro whimsy,” said Emily McHugh, who leads String & Shadow and is directing “Garden.” “This play fits pretty well into the general aesthetic that we tend towards. It has these heavier elements, but it has this really high whimsical place where the kids go and play these imaginary games. In a lot of ways, ‘The Secret Garden’ is about the need for whimsy.”

‘The Secret Garden’

• What: This world-premiere adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel moves the story of orphaned Mary to a native garden in the contemporary Pacific Northwest.
• When: 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 16
• Where: Olympia Family Theater, 612 Fourth Ave. E, Olympia
• Tickets: $5-$35 on a sliding scale, with a limited number of free tickets available at the door
• More information: 360-570-1638, http://olyft.org
• Also: Recommended for ages 5 and older