Emma (Chichester Festival Theatre) - Review 

JANE Austen’s classic Emma is given a bright and breezy adaptation at Chichester Festival Theatre as part of celebrations being held to mark the 250th anniversary of the author’s birth.

Adapted by Ryan Craig, the production is both easy on the eye and pleasing on the mind, effortlessly capturing the essence of Austen’s text by simplifying the story, modernising the language without compromising on either the sharp wit or intellect.

As such, it boasts broad appeal in the way it almost effortlessly engages the hearts and minds of audiences of every age - from the eldest to the youngest (including 13-year-old Luca Gian Carnevale), who delivered a deservedly rapturous round of applause come the finale.

An outstanding cast is headed by India Shaw-Smith as the Emma of the title, a confident young singleton, averse to marriage for fear of abandoning her beloved father, yet determined to meddle in the affairs of the heart of her wider community.

She portrays Emma when a confidence bordering on snobbery, whose intentions - while well meaning - invariably spell heartbreak for those she interferes with.

Primary among those is Harriet Smith (played by understudy Lukwesa Mwamba), whose burgeoning romance with likeable everyman farmer Robert Martin (Daniel Rainford) is cut short as Emma seeks a more socially acceptable pairing with the somewhat more stuffy vicar Philip Elton (Oscar Batterham).

Watching on with increasing consternation from the sidelines are Emma’s elderly but adorable father, Mr Woodhouse (William Chubb) and her regular sparring partner and potential suitor George Knightley (Ed Sayer), the latter of whom regularly buries his own feelings while painfully aware of Emma’s own infatuation with childhood sweetheart Frank Churchill (Peter Losasso) who in turn has fallen for the somewhat poorer Jane Fairfax (Jade Kennedy), but must wait for his ailing aunt to pass away so that he can secure his inheritance and provide for a life together.

In a comedy filled with mixed messaging and unintended consequence, Elton also misinterprets Emma’s communication as a sign of courtship, while the hapless Harriet continually finds herself smitten with the wrong men (all the while still carrying a torch for the one man Emma doesn’t want her to have).

The beauty of this production lies in the way that it showcases the timeless nature of Austen’s text, given how the difficulties of navigating romance amid the interfering of friends resonate to this day (from Friends to Nobody Wants This via Bridgerton and more).

And while the comedy has certainly been heightened when directly compared to the subtlety of Austen’s text, it is so well written that it holds universal appeal.

The cast embrace this lightness too, whether it’s in the way Mr Woodhouse reacts with despair to each one of Emma’s contrivances (or paintings), or a scene in which Emma teaches Harriet how to curtsy seductively, which borders on the farcical (and is beautifully played by Mwamba). Even the props department add to the overall sense of revelry with both their body language and communication adding another layer of humour as they regularly move around the furniture.

There are show-stopping moments of more dramatic intensity too - whether a solo song performed by Kennedy’s Fairfax at a festive gathering (which is stunning), or some of the more belated exchanges between Emma and Mr Knightley, in which frustration eventually boils over into passion (Sayer’s earnestness is genuinely appealing and his performance is another highlight).

But the emphasis is on keeping things generally light and, to this end, the production feels like an all too welcome distraction from the everyday woes of the world in which we currently live as well as a brilliant showcase for the endurability of Austen.

Praise, too, for the production design, which is simple but effective, and to the costume department, which remain faithful to the Regency era and keep the actresses, in particular, on their toes with the innumerable off-stage dress changes (the speed of which is impressive in itself).

In addition to the aforementioned solo song, there is a nicely layered Christmas number that also stands out as well as a couple of well executed dance sequences, which nod to the importance of dance in Austen’s era.

In short, this is a memorable adaptation of a beloved story that is worthy of its place among the anniversary celebrations. It brought tears of joy to this particular viewer.