1936 – Premiere of Antony Tudor’s Jardin aux lilas (Lilac Garden) by Ballet Rambert

Jardin aux lilas (or Lilac Garden as it is also titled) is a dramatic ballet in one act choreographed by Antony Tudor. The music is by Ernest Chausson and the original sets and costumes by Hugh Stevenson. The ballet was first performed by Ballet Rambert at the Mercury Theatre in 1936. 

The setting is a summer garden party at the turn of the 20^th-century. Tudor evokes the silent and stifling misery of a young woman, Caroline, who is destined to marry a man she does not love. Her lover is also at the party, as is the former mistress of her fiancée. The four of them have hurried, awkward and elegantly tortured meetings. The atmosphere is tense and taut under the all-encompassing mantle of correct manners. There can be no satisfactory resolve; the loveless marriage will happen.  

It is a subtle and brilliant study of the Edwardian age and its mores, yet at the same time, watching the ballet in the 21^st-Century, we have the sense that perhaps human relationships have inwardly little changed.

The original cast included Maude Lloyd, Hugh Laing, Antony Tudor, Peggy van Praagh, Elizabeth Schooling, Frank Staff, Ann Gee, Tatiana Svetlova and Leslie Edwards.