As the Garsington Players gathered for their last production at the manor — at least during the Ingrams era — it was wonderful to see the sun shining, allowing those of us who arrived early a chance to wander in the glorious gardens.

The opening scene was played outside, promenade-style, before we moved into the Great Barn for indoor action. Under director Janet Bolam, this was a balanced reading, with the play’s comic potential fully explored and the actors clearly relishing Shaw’s wit and poetic rhythms. The tea-party scene at Mrs Higgins’s house, where Eliza begins to sound like a lady, was especially well played.

But for all its comedy, this is an unsettling play. Higgins and Pickering are, after all, using another human being as a mere object for their social experimentation, and their callous indifference to Eliza after she has won their bet drives the point home forcefully. Eliza herself touches on this when she alludes to herself as a “doll” — and to the men she is just that, a toy to be picked up, played with and then discarded when no longer of any use or interest. Jenny Whitehead (above) shone as Eliza Doolittle, transforming convincingly from snivelling flower girl to cultured lady, drawing plenty of laughs along the way but also impressing with her passion and despair as she realises that her rags-to-riches journey has left her unfit for anything. no wonder she cries out in anguish: “What’s to become of me?”

Edward Hess also impressed as Henry Higgins, the phonetics expert who is hopelessly out of his depth when it comes to handling women — especially one as strong-willed as Eliza — and who, underneath his bombastic manner, is really just a mummy’s boy. Among a strong supporting cast, Marie Holmes’s deferential but determined Mrs Pearce and Jonathan Kay’s comic Alfred Doolittle were particularly memorable.