Oxford Playhouse celebrates Jane Austen’s 250th anniversary with a sparkling new stage adaptation of Emma.
After thrilling audiences earlier this year with the Terence Rattigan double bill Summer 1954 and Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, Theatre Royal Bath, hailing from the city synonymous with so many of Austen’s stories, return to The Playhouse with this special adaptation by Ryan Craig (What We Did To Weinstein, Filthy Business). This new production of Austen’s celebrated comedy of manners is directed by the founder of English Touring Theatre and former Rose Theatre Artistic Director Stephen Unwin (Farm Hall).
The cast includes rising star India Shaw-Smith, soon to be seen on TV in Spartacus: House of Ashur, as Austen’s heroine Emma, alongside Oscar Batterham, William Chubb, Jade Kennedy, Peter Losasso, Rose Quentin, Daniel Rainford, Ed Sayer and Maiya Louise Thapar, with Jordan Kilshaw, Lukwesa Mwamba, Charlie Norton, Hugh Osborne and Jordan Stamatiadis. William Chubb returns to The Playhouse as Mr Woodhouse, following his appearance in Theatre Royal Bath’s production, Farm Hall, in 2023. Playing Jane Fairfax, Jade Kennedy also returns to the Oxford stage after delighting audiences earlier this year in Little Women.
The creative team of Emma includes Ryan Craig as Adaptor, Stephen Unwin as Director, Ceci Calf as Set & Costume Designer, Ben Ormerod as Lighting Designer, John Leonard as Sound Designer, Ginny Schiller CDG as Casting Director, Millie Gaston as Associate Director, Natasha Harrison as Choreographer, and Matthew Scott as Composer.
The beautiful, high-spirited Emma Woodhouse is determined that she will never marry but loves to meddle in her friends’ and neighbours’ relationships. When her confidante and former governess, Miss Taylor, weds her fiancé Mr Weston, Emma, having introduced the couple, takes credit for the marriage and decides that a future in matchmaking lies ahead of her.
So begins a comic journey through the lives and loves of Emma’s friends and neighbours, embracing the burgeoning Regency social scene of Bath and Weymouth. But as the romantic web she weaves amongst her friends becomes ever more entangled, will Emma herself get swept up in true love’s wake… Find out this week at Oxford Playhouse.
To book tickets, contact the Box Office on 01865 305305 or visit oxfordplayhouse.com
Images (c) Simon Annand Above Rose Quentin, Below India Shaw Smith & Rose Quentin
