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behind six completed novels (four already published and two released not long after her death) and several volumes of unpublished juvenilia, as well as two aborted novel starts.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 juvenilia (as Love and Friendship, the title of a different Young Austen story) and three seasons of Sanditon, adapting and building from the novel Austen was working on when she died.

EPT’s The Watsons, created for Jane Austen’s 250th anniversary, is the story of Emma Watson (if you are also part of the generation that grew up with Harry Potter: no, not that Emma Watson), played by Ellie Marie Duncan. Returned after 15 years of living with her rich aunt to her much less prosperous family home, complete with two unmarried sisters (Sarah Stanton and Chloe Baines) and a dying father (Kevin Edie), she quickly finds herself an object of fascination to the very eligible rake, Tom Musgrave (Fraser Mackenzie), and the awkward thousandaire, Lord Osborne (Nathaniel Forsyth).

But where something like the Sanditon TV series tries to continue on with Austen’s story without her through pastiche (and not a little borrowing from other classic works), The Watsons merrily and intentionally runs full tilt into the roadblock. When the known story runs out, we discover that a background maid Laura (Ruth Finlay) is actually a version of the adaptation’s writer, Laura Wade, trying to finish Austen’s story for her… if she can coax that out of the existing fragment and its pre-existing characters.

Writers talking about writing is a tricky subject, and this arresting look at the material certainly falls into some of its pitfalls, with the pace suffering from characters becoming mouthpieces for different ideas rather than embodiments of them. The bonkers finale and its sweet conclusion about the Watsons would have been worth getting to a bit faster.

But even in its self-indulgences, the material remains strong, as is the cast. Ellie Marie Duncan is a worthy Austen protagonist, Forsyth’s awkward Lord Osborne feels both appropriate and genuine, and Finlay’s Laura’s scattered modernness contrasts well with the rest of the cast. The set (constructed by Richard Spiers, Paul Wilson and members of the team) and costumes (Aileen Copland, Sheila Bain, Mary Macleod and Claire Morand) set the period and tone well, and Director Hilary Spiers and choreographers Carole Williams and Ellen McFadzen have put a lot of good work into the crowd scenes.

Andrew Davies’s Austen this ain’t, and that is no bad thing. But this is still a rare opportunity to see a classic author’s lesser known work come to life, and this adaptation certainly brings the novel out of this quarter of a book.

The Watsons is running at the Church Hill Theatre until the 31st May. Tickets can be found at: https://churchhilltheatre.co.uk/whats-on/watsons

Reviewer: Oliver Giggins

Reviewed: 28th May 2025

North West End UK Rating: