5 STARS, May 30 – June 3. After a successful show at Leatherhead Theatre, Tim Luscombe's stage adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel comes to Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud and is an absolute must see, says Janice Dempsey
Emma Woodhouse is a strong-willed young woman, mistress of her own house and money since she became carer of her aged widowed father at the age of twelve. Now in her mid-twenties and urged by her neighbours and friends to marry, she is understandably loth to give up her own legal power (as a wife in Regency English society must). Nevertheless, she spends most of her time trying to manipulate the loves and marital status of everyone around her, usually with disastrous but comic results. Gradually she learns to be less patronising, more self-aware, through the advice of her old friend Mr Knightly. The advice is often blunt and sometimes scolding – ‘Emma, you are a spoilt brat!’
Bethan Nash is captivating. She beautifully portrays Emma’s manipulative charm, which dissolves into adolescent tantrums or self-congratulatory smugness in private as she reviews with Mr Knightley the results of her machinations. Her snobbishness, her shallow concern for appearances and her lack of empathy for the feelings of people less well-off than herself (despite her ostentatious “good works”) are flaws that can be forgiven by Mr Knightley (Phillip Edgely), in the face of her open, childlike nature. Knightley is the steadying influence in her hectic world of small-town gossip and intrigue.
If Emma is snobbish, Mrs Elton (Hannah Genesius) shows how London society “does” snobbishness and social control. This is another spirited performance; the bitchy interactions between the two women are very funny.
Kate Copeland (Miss Bates) also turns in a memorable performance as the pitiable spinster, whose social status has fallen with her finances. Polly Misch as Harriet, Emma’s even more vulnerable seventeen-year-old protégé, is touching, too. Georgie Oulton as Jane, at risk of ruin by an untrustworthy suitor, completes Austen’s parade of the plight of women without money of their own in Regency society. Nicholas Tizzard, George Kemp and Rhys Jones, play the other male characters, drawn less vividly by Austen, but well played.
Emma is set in Surrey. The Leatherhead audience found references to trips to Epsom, a visit to London for a haircut (‘sixteen miles on horseback’) and the reassurance that ‘the scarlet fever has stopped at Cobham’, very comic.
This adaptation of Emma is authentic and accessible even to those who haven’t read the novel or seen the films. The staging is original and imaginatively designed. And you will surely fall in love with the flawed and charming character of Emma Woodhouse! As Miss Austen herself said, through the character of Mr Knightley: ‘Emma is faultless, in spite of her faults.’
- Emma comes to the Yvonne Arnaud May 30 – June 3. For tickets visit yvonne-arnaud.co.uk
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