EMMA To 29 August.
Tour.
EMMA
by Jane Austen adapted by Peter Mimmack.
Heartbreak Productions: Tour to 29 August 2009.
Runs: 2hr 30min One interval.
Review: Alan Geary Nottingham Castle 2 July.
It’s that dreaded play-within-a-play cliché all over again.
There are lots of good things about Heartbreak’s open-air adaptation of the Jane Austen classic. But, not for the first time, adaptor/writer Peter Mimmack has fallen into the error of taking a work that could have spoken for itself as a stand-alone play and made it a play within a play. The outer play, involving a group of Romantic Movement artists, is superfluous and irrelevant; and it’s actually less accessible than the bit in the middle, the bit based purely on Austen’s original.
Emma’s journey of self-discovery, as well as Austen’s moral purpose, keeps getting interrupted by argy-bargy associated with the outer play. This is most sad after the proper end when match-making meddler Emma is herself matched with Mr Knightley: what should be triumphant resolution is dampened by dreary anti-climax.
As part of the painting of characters, each of the main figures is set in an actual physical picture frame as he/she is narrated into the plot. It has to be said that this works well.
All three female actors, particularly Kimberley Wintle, whose main part is Harriet, have problems with projection, especially at the start. But Holly Beth Morgan is an otherwise excellent Emma. The best projection, and articulation, comes from James Merry as Mr Knightley.
Perhaps the funniest scene is when Mr Elton (Duncan Wigman) proposes to Emma in a moving carriage. Certainly the most moving is when Emma puts that verbal dagger into the pathetic Miss Bates (Erika Sanderson).
The musical element contributes a lot of enjoyment to the evening; there’s an, albeit, tantalisingly short duet from Jane (Kimberley Wintle) and Frank Churchill (Duncan Wigman) with Emma at the piano which is beautifully done.
Emma: Holly Beth Morgan.
Frank Churchill: Duncan Wigman.
Harriet: Kimberley Wintle.
Mr Knightley: James Merry.
Miss Bates: Erika Sanderson.
Director: Zachary Holton.
Designer: Kate Unwin.
Composer: Andy Guthrie.
2009-07-06 00:26:54