He's a father who can't feel, facing a houseful of need.

Archibald Craven is a strange character, tall and reclusive, with high, crooked shoulders and a big emotional wound. His wife, Lily, the only person he felt loved by, died during childbirth 10 years earlier, and he has been a distant father to their son, Colin.

"He just doesn't know how to be a father," said actor Dallyn Vail Bayles, who plays Craven. "He doesn't know how to love his son because he's dealing with so much himself after the loss of his wife."

The role compelled Bayles, a 27-year-old Brigham Young University theater-department graduate, to pack up in October and make a 14-hour drive from Salt Lake City to the Puget Sound area.

His wife, Rachel, and their two children are with him, staying near Village Theatre's home base in Issaquah while he performs in "The Secret Garden." He had played Craven since November in Issaquah, and the musical opens Friday for a two-week-plus run at the Everett Performing Arts Center.

"The Secret Garden" is one of those perennial successes: a still-in-print 1912 children's novel, two well-loved films, a nonmusical stage play and this production, based on the 1991 Tony-winning Broadway musical.

Mary Lennox is the heroine, a young British girl whose parents have died in a 1906 cholera epidemic in India.

On stage Village Theatre will present the musical by Marsha Norman (dialogue and lyrics) and Lucy Simon (music) from Friday through Jan. 23 at the Everett Performing Arts Center, 2710 Wetmore Ave. The show is aimed at a family audience. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are $26-$42 and available at 425-257-8600. Information: www.villagetheatre.org.

Ill herself, Mary is sent to her Uncle Archibald's home in Britain but is very much alone there. The Yorkshire moors are a pale, damp contrast to the colorful, exotic life she had lived in India. She's a disagreeable girl in Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel, a 10-year-old tyrant who declares: "People never like me, and I never like people."

Yet her life changes in Yorkshire. In her uncle's cavernous mansion, Mary befriends her 10-year-old cousin Colin (Josh Froebe), who is in poor health.

On the grounds, Mary discovers a door in the shrubbery. Finding the key, she opens a neglected garden and adopts it as her own. She's helped by sympathetic characters: Martha (Kat Ramsburg), a young housemaid; Dickon (Eric Ankrim), Martha's brother, a boy in touch with the earth and growing things; Ben (Chad Jennings), an old gardener; and Mrs. Medlock (Teri Lee Thomas), a housekeeper.

Soon the spoiled, precocious girl is learning to be a child again, digging, weeding and planting in the fresh air. The garden changes through the play, from austere brick walls to lush blooms.

"It parallels Archibald and Mary and Colin. As the garden blooms, their lives bloom," Bayles said.

Actresses Rachel Beck and Caitlin Kinnunen alternate in the role of Mary. Some of the characters return as ghosts — one even walks out of a painting.

"They're called dreamers, and they're very much involved in trying to help Archibald and Mary grow and be able to move on," Bayles said. "No matter what your spiritual beliefs, you can believe they are spirits wanting to help their families to move on or just memory figures. They're very present, very real forces in the show."

Bayles, who intends to eventually move his family to New York City to work in theater, already has done several acting projects of note. His first glimpse of Seattle was when he did "Les Miserables" on tour for 15 months, playing at The 5th Avenue Theatre in 2003.

He heard about Village Theatre from Michael McLean, the Utah-based creator of "The Ark," a musical about Noah that the theater had staged.

Bayles calls the "Secret Garden" music by Lucy Simon "some of the best ever written."

"The songs are dramatic, drenched with need and are heavier than just 'stand and sing and feel good.' A lot of the songs you hear are expressive of a lot of love and need and joy," Bayles said.

After weeks in the role, Bayles said, he thinks he has captured Archibald's journey in the show.

"I understand, being a father myself — it's a big responsibility," he said. "I love my kids, and I can see how much they need love from their parents. It's exciting to know how much he really does love his child."

Ultimately, Bayles said, "The Secret Garden" is the story of people who have healed from losses.

"They may have shut down emotionally, but there's always hope," he said. "People can find love and hope in their lives. That's what I love so much about it."

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com