WHAT better way to celebrate the 250th birthday of Jane Austin, whose novels are the definitive portrait of society in George III’s England, than to mount an adaptation of her 1815 novel Emma in an elegant theatre standing on a site that has housed a theatre since 1805. Adapter Ryan Craig and director Stephen Unwin, with an eye on the comedy within the story of the interfering Emma Woodhouse, who believes she has a gift for matchmaking, admirably captured the period feel of the story, aided by Ceci Calf’s costumes and Katie Balmforth’s well-chosen, and stylishly set props.

The idea of using a virtually empty stage in order to keep the action flowing at speed was less rewarding. William Chubb’s Mr Woodhouse, full of lovely bumbling vague mannerisms, was not helped by an open setting that did not convey that he was sitting in a once-grand house and unable to see that it was fast deteriorating for lack of attention.

The nine characters who emerged, however, had Jane Austin written all over them. India Shaw-Smith’s beautifully poised Emma,, convinced that she was a matchmaker par excellence, and in doing so almost ruing the lives of her naïve friend Harriet Smith (Maiya Louise Thapar) and her true loving farmer Robert Martin (Daniel Rainford), misleading Oscar Batterham’s eager Philip Elton into believing she loves him, driving him into the arms of the viper-tongued Augusta Hawkins (Rose Quentin) and, through knowing only part of the story, spreading false rumours about the relationship between Jade Kennedy’s sincere Jane Fairfax and Peter Losasso’s dashing Frank Churchill.

There were times when you felt like Ed Sayer’s far-seeing George Knightley, that you wanted to resort to the old fashioned remedy, now defiantly non PC, of giving India Shaw-Smith’s blinkered Emma a sharp smack on the nether regions. If any author is looking how to tie up the loose ends of a plot they should look at this one, where Jane Austin draws the strings together into a neat and very acceptable package.

As for whether or not this production captured the mood and atmosphere of the period, I can only quote a few words from two ladies from South Carolina who in the interval summed it up as being “so British”.

GRP

 

Photographs by Simon Annand

 

This production of Emma tours until 15th November. The final venue is Poole Lighthouse, where it runs from 10th November.