World Premiere of new adaptation of Jane Austen’s novels is a hoot.
- Charles Essex
- Jul 3
- 3 min read
The Complete Jane Austen Collection (sort of). Performed at The Attic Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, running until 19 July. Directed by Ash Bayliss.
Review by Charles Essex
Many people have seen the film or television versions of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, but how many people have read more than a couple of Jane Austen’s novels – or even one? Limited by having just three actors, including Tread the Boards regulars John-Robert (JR) Partridge and Emily Tietz, Rosie Coles, Austen aficionado, did her best to bring gravitas and authenticity to an evening of Jane Austen novels. What could possibly go wrong?
Unfortunately, only Rosie had read any Austen novels, and she had recruited two actors who were less than enthusiastic about her project. JR was openly scathing about the shallowness and repetitive nature of the plots, whilst Emily was hoping for the best roles for herself. The writing team of Emma Ingleton, Ash Bayliss and Catherine Prout gave this full house an hilarious run through of all of the Austen novels, transforming serious and emotionally intense literature into side splitting comedy.
JR gave a clever slide presentation of Jane Austen’s life, with numerous malapropisms and anachronisms, to get the show underway. Each novel only had the skeleton of the story because the dialogue and characters were portrayed using examples from modern TV programmes such as Rosie’s impersonation of Cilla Black in a dating game show. Traitors and Made in Chelsea each got a scene. JR appeared as Elton John using his song titles as part of his dialogue.
All the cast did well in the dance routines, which were very varied, almost none of which were appropriate for the Austen era and which made the scenes even more humorous. In Sense and Sensibility, Emily and JR danced to Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights before Rosie pointed out that was by Emily Brontë, not Jane Austen.
The whole evening was pantomime by another name intertwined with very clever farce. There was a boo-hiss pantomime scene with JR holding hand puppets behind a screen, while Rosie encouraged the audience to support her, and an Ossie Osborne character made an appearance. There was a lot of innuendo but much of the script was very witty. Rosie gave Emily and JR the challenge of performing Mansfield Park in three minutes before the interval, which of course the three of them succeeded in doing with a superb hyperactive interchange of roles and taking turns to explain the plot.
After the interval, the focus was on Austen’s best-known work, Pride and Prejudice. JR of course thought he was going to be Darcy, but Rosie had recruited Colin Firth… as a life size cardboard cutout. The interactions of Emily as Elizabeth Bennett with the cardboard Firth, and the disappointed JR giving deadpan responses as Firth, reading the script from the back of the cutout, were hysterical. In best pantomime tradition, two reluctant audience members were invited to participate.
Although Austen purists may have been a bit shellshocked, this was a first-rate evening’s entertainment. Even if, like this reviewer, one knows very little about Austen’s work, this was well worth the price of the ticket and can be highly recommended.
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