As Jane Austen herself said after changing her mind about accepting a proposal of marriage, “anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without affection.”
And yet the gob-smacking surprise in this delight-filled adaptation of Austen’s unfinished novel is that her heroine opts not for affection, but for the cash. Obviously things are not going to plan. Not Austen’s plan nor that of writer Laura Wade who has taken on the daunting job of finishing what Austen started in 1803.
Its heroine is (a different) Emma who, after being raised by a rich aunt, returns at the age of 19 to the relatively poor family home into which she was born and back into the lives of her two older sisters and their bed-bound, gravely ill, widower father.
Ben Stones’s simple design is a minimalist version of a Regency-period room, only with enough doors to serve a farce. But nothing about this show, which was first seen at Chichester and is directed by Wade’s partner Samuel West, signals that it is anything other than an attempt to transpose Austen’s intentions to the stage as faithfully as possible. Indeed, Grace Molony’s Emma is perfectly judged as someone who is highly skilled at 19th century social etiquette while at the same time having the strength of character to push against the conventions and expectations with which women of the period were saddled.
The evening bowls along entertainingly, providing Austen devotees with familiar 19th century tropes of bonnets and petticoats and a society ball during which Emma receives admiring approaches from playboy charmer Tom, superrich Lord Osborne and the modest yet handsome clergyman Mr Howard. Where it goes (intentionally) pear-shaped is when Austin’s heroine makes a choice of life-partner that is less than heroic. And it is here that Wade’s alter-ego Laura (Louise Ford with a performance that is decidedly 21st century) is forced to enter her own play in an effort to, um, take back control.
There is yet more Brexit resonance when the play’s characters including the lords, ladies and minor aristocracy that make up its upper echelons, and Nanny the cook who is the only working class character, take part in a referendum to decide whether they, not Austen and certainly not Laura, should decide their fate.
And so what sets out to be an attempt to complete another unfinished Austen novel ( the other is Sanditon, currently on ITV) turns into a Pirandello-esque subversion of just about every expectation you might bring to a play that describes itself as an adaptation of Jane Austen. The result is a mind-expanding study on the nature of existence, free will and the differences between people and characters.
Wade manages to do all this by injecting the evening with a stream of jokes and self-awareness that protects it from feeling pompous or intellectually over reaching. Expect the unexpected.
