Emma at the Oxford Playhouse

 

It was all so familiar. Jane Austen wrote Emma in 1815 and the adaptations for film and TV go on and on. Here was the Theatre Royal, Bath's production of a script by Ryan Craig. All fine except for a couple of very modern expressions that we could have done without. Directed by Stephen Unwin, there was a lovely humorous tone to the play.

All the actors threw themselves into the proceedings led by the excellent India Shaw-Smith as Emma Woodhouse. ("A perfect, meddlesome, pert, bossy-boots"). The polar opposite to the lead she played in the Amazon Prime film The Pines Still Whisper. (just watched the trailer). Ed Sayer was born to play George Knightley and seventy year old William Chubb enjoyed being the elderly father Mr Woodhouse.  

There were a couple of innovative features. In between scenes, the lights on the stage go down and the scenery is moved by the shadows of some of the cast. In particular, it might have been understudies Charlie Norton and Jordan Kilshaw who, in tandom, moved the furniture. And then there was Hugh Osborne, an exceptional silent butler. The two hours plus interval was spot on.