Persuasion

Adapted by Jeff James and James Yeatman, from the novel by Jane Austen Director: Jeff James Royal Exchange Theatre, St Ann’s Square, Manchester (0161-833 9833) Until 24 June Running time: 2hrs (including interval)

“Did the gentry frolic seminaked at foam parties in Jane Austen’s day?” Probably not, said Roger Foss in The Stage. But they do in Jeff James’s “radically rejigged” stage adaptation of her posthumously published last novel. By the time the interval arrives, “megagallons of slurp” have descended from the ceiling, and everyone on stage is “wallowing in a sea of bubbles”. Does this “spectacular ejaculation” symbolise class rigidities being swept away on the beach at Lyme Regis? Or does the “orgasmic messiness” represent the liberated passions foaming inside Austen’s heroine, Anne Elliot, who is on the shelf at 27? Perhaps both. Either way, the fabulous foam party is a bold stroke that’s typical of the show: clever and enormous fun.

Persuasion is Austen’s most “mature and melancholic novel”, said Claire Allfree in The Daily Telegraph – a “frost-tipped exploration of the meaning of love and a quietly savage critique of Regency England’s obsessions with money and class”. The running joke of this “inventive and extremely funny” adaptation is that Anne, her sisters and their friends are aware of 21st century courting conventions yet are stuck within the confines of Austen’s times. It’s a conceit that “mines terrific comedy” from Austen’s setup – “amplifying what is already there and giving it a modern twist”. Thus Anne’s foolish father is a “raddled hippy” in a velvet dressing gown. Mary, her younger sister, is an exhausted stay-at-home mother. And Penelope, her widowed father’s “ambiguous companion”, is now the lesbian best friend of her elder sister, Elizabeth. The result is a “terrific” show that is both subversively modern and utterly true to Austen.

Traditionalist crinolinefanciers need not worry, said Lyn Gardner in The Guardian. I took about 25 minutes to be “persuaded” by the modern reworking: after that, “I was hooked”. Lara Rossi “brings a grave dignity” to Anne, while Caroline Moroney and Cassie Layton have “brilliant fun as the Musgrove sisters, all teenage self-consciousness and casual cruelties”. In sum, a “bold, enjoyable and often exhilarating” production.