Jane Austen Archives - North West End UK

23Sep

By Kira DanielsNo Comments

London

Emma – Rose Theatre

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. At least, Jane Austen’s Emma did. Ava Pickett’s Emma has got issues. Handsome and clever but decidedly not rich, her father is a crook, her sister is a crackpot, and her own disposition is anything but happy. This Essex-set adaptation of the literary classic opens at Oxford’s May Ball and is throughout infused with the vaguely sickeningly hedonistic energy of that messy melee. Blatantly dismissive of the traditional Regency aesthetic of horse-and-carriage romance, this production instead takes on the look and feel of a Piccadilly Circus rickshaw ca...

Pride and Prejudice – Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre

13Jul

By Miranda GreenNo Comments

North West

Pride and Prejudice – Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre

The annual open-air theatre at Grosvenor Park has, of late, sidestepped Shakespeare, both to bring in new audiences and because they’ve “done all the good ones.” Instead, they are showcasing new and edgy productions such as last year’s sell-out Gangs of New York and this year’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Twenty-twenty’s production of Pride and Prejudice has therefore been revived for 2025 presumably to fulfil the heritage quota. Happily, this chimes with Austen’s 250th birthday. Photo: Mark McNulty However, this is not to say that it will only appeal to a vintage audience. Indeed, the youngest member in last night’s was only about 2 months old. Admittedly she did sleep through most of it… Not so the rest of us, teens through to antique relics, because matters of love, with...

12Jun

By Brian MaddenNo Comments

North West

Pride and Prejudice – Octagon Theatre

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is celebrated for its wit and insight into gender and class. Kate Hamill’s stage adaptation reframes Austen’s story through a fast-paced, farcical lens — one that’s lively and inventive, if not always emotionally resonant. The plot is familiar: Elizabeth Bennet is one of four unmarried daughters in a financially precarious household. Her sharp wit and scepticism about marriage bring her into conflict — and ultimately connection — with the aloof but wealthy Mr. Darcy. Meanwhile, younger sister Lydia throws herself into romantic entanglement with the roguish Mr. Wickham, while Jane, the eldest, quietly pines for Mr. Bingley. Hamill’s script leans heavily into broad comedy and slapstick. Some choices are entertainingly bold; others verge on caricature. ...

29May

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

The Watsons – Church Hill Theatre

When Jane Austen died in July of 1817, she left behind six completed novels (four already published and two released not long after her death) and several volumes of unpublished juvenilia, as well as two aborted novel starts. These include Sanditon, which she was working on when she died, and 1803's The Watsons, which marked the transitionary period between her childhood attempts and the later novels with which she would find various levels of success. Austen's subsequent comparatively small canon of works and her status in literature has led to a small but passionate fascination with these lesser works, especially in recent years. While continuations, sequels and spin-offs of Austen are nothing new, over the last decade we have also had big-name adaptations of Lady Susan from her juven...

Sense & Sensibility – Shakespeare North Playhouse

16May

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Sense & Sensibility – Shakespeare North Playhouse

The Pantaloons roll up in Prescot again with their delightful ensemble of skits, songs, and gags this time aimed at Jane Austen’s first novel with lashings of Regency romp raising the bar high even if there are a few low flying beams to watch out for. All actors want to perform in a theatre-in-the-round but with nowhere to hide, only the best can deliver: The Pantaloons served up a theatrical masterclass tonight and a timely reminder of how great theatre can be. Sisters Elinor (Alex Rivers) and Marianne (Cicely Halkes-Wellstead) along with their mother are somewhat down on their luck and effectively palmed off by their older half-brother when their father dies to live on the estate of a cousin, Sir John Middleton (Christopher Smart). Elinor is disconsolate as she had become close to Edw...

7May

By Karen Morley-ChesworthNo Comments

North West

Northanger Abbey – Theatre by the Lake

From the novel by Jane Austen comes a play by Zoe Cooper that brings 21st century humour and gender politics to the original early 19th century text, writes Karen Morley-Chesworth. With interaction with the audience, breaking down the fourth wall as well as a number of taboos that would have made Miss Austen blush, this production opens with lively style. Rebecca Banatvala as Cath, the heroin of this and her own story commands the piece with gusto. Banatvala is the powerhouse of this production, which is anything but your expected adaptation of an Austen novel. AK Golding and Sam Newton play a number of different roles that create Cath’s world – her parents, the neighbours who take her to Bath for the season and the first love of her life, Hen and her new found female friend Iz. ...

Northanger Abbey – Octagon Theatre, Bolton

6Mar

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

Northanger Abbey – Octagon Theatre, Bolton

The first months of 2024 have brought a plethora of fresh writing to our region and following hot on the heels of new works by Jim Cartwright, Emma Rice and Phoebe Eclair-Powell comes an absolute gem by a little known writer from Hampshire called Jane Austen… Of course, we know that Northanger Abbey was published over two centuries ago, and Austen is so famous that she adorns every ten pound note in England, but this radical and stylised adaptation from Zoe Cooper allows us to see the story as almost freshly minted, the result is a startlingly fresh and inventive take on the mores of Regency England. Subverting Austen’s own omniscient narrator, we hear the story from the perspective of Cath (Rebecca Banatvala), reenacting her life and recent adventures with Iz (AK Golding) and Hen (Sam ...

5Mar

By Alice RoseNo Comments

London

Persuasion – Rose Theatre

A fresh perspective on Jane Austen’s adaptation, Persuasion with WAP, Frank Ocean and a foam party. This production follows Anne and her desperate sisters on their conquest for love but as their 30s approach, they worry about compatibility and finding a match that will ensure a long and easy life. However, as with classical romance there is always one who suffers in the quest for true connection, Anne (Sasha Frost) and her desperate love for Captain Wentworth (Fred Fergus) are knocked together like conkers as they try to rekindle a love they once had. We are very much in an age of reflection and in result, seeing the return of a lot of classical texts. It’s refreshing more so to be seeing new interpretations and a wittier perspective on the structures we enforced upon ourselves. It spea...

4Jan

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) – Royal Lyceum Theatre

For anyone who battled through Jane Austen’s ‘Pride & Prejudice’ at school - or university - this play is for YOU. If you spent those hours-you’ll-never-get-back watching one of the film or TV adaptations, hurling abuse and shouting increasingly colourful language into the mouths of the characters, this script is for YOU. To witness this irritating novel set about with such irreverent relish was a filthy pleasure. Never mind what legions of readers and viewers have wanted to tell Lady Catherine De Bourgh to do, this play - via The Best Ever Mr Darcy - finally does it. How? First off, we’re introduced, not to Mr and Mrs Bennet, but to six of Longbourn’s servants clad in white utility smocks and DM’s (Dear Young Team, that’s a brand of footwear, not a form of soshal meeja); the sto...