Review: Emma, Rose Theatre
Review: Emma, Rose Theatre
Four stars
Image (c) Marc Brenner
There’s a certain sense of unbridled mischief crackling throughout Ava Pickett’s ‘Emma.’ With jokes a mile a minute, you could tell the actors were having a blast. The audience was too.
For the uninitiated, ‘Emma,’ currently showing at the Rose Theatre, is an adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic tale of matchmaking and village drama. This modern twist on the tale swaps in ballrooms for sticky club dance floors, and courting for meeting up ‘on the apps.’ The modern references are sly, clever and seamless; there are just enough tongue-in-cheek references to TikTok to make these characters feel like real young people, without becoming overwrought.
‘Emma’ can be a difficult story to adapt: Austen herself famously commented that she wasn’t sure whether anyone would actually like this flawed heroine. Emma’s personal journey within the story is a lesson in humility and treating others with kindness, and Pickett deftly adapts this without making her heroine off-putting. Rather than a wealthy young member of the landed gentry, this Emma is a priggish Oxford student, returning to her small Essex hometown after failing her exams. This detail adds an interesting twist on the character: once she begins her mission of matchmaking her friends and family, you get the sense that she is meddling in the lives of others because she cannot control her own. A great character detail.
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Amelia Kenworthy makes a strong stage debut as Emma, infusing the titular character with a dynamic presence and a sympathetic performance that keeps you rooting for her character. Sofia Oxenham also proves a great foil as the more sweet and simple-minded Harriet. Pickett’s script expands upon the facets of female friendship, allowing a more complex relationship to emerge between the two women.
Nigel Lindsay performs with brilliant range as Mr Woodhouse, providing many of the play’s biggest laugh-out-loud moments in the first act, before delivering some much-needed heart in the second, with a beautiful speech about grief that proved to be the play’s strongest moment of both writing and acting. Lucy Benjamin is an excellently-casted Mrs Bates, reimagined as a well-meaning local beautician. Kit Young is great as George Knightley, providing a more serious straight-man role to balance out the wackiness of the other characters, infusing his character with acerbic wit as the only one willing to challenge Emma (while also secretly yearning for her).
The play perhaps relies a little too much on tropes to match up to Austen’s level of biting, insightful social commentary, but makes up for it with hilarity, endearing characters and strong direction from Christopher Haydon. The script is sparing with its usage of direct quotes from Austen, using them only at the play’s most climactic points, which makes them land perfectly.
One need not be a hardcore Austen fan to enjoy this play. Anyone looking for a night of belly-laughs and a story to root for should take an interest.
