{"id":484126,"date":"2025-10-08T23:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T23:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/484126\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T23:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T23:06:10","slug":"jane-austens-emma-lyceum-theatre-sheffield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/484126\/","title":{"rendered":"Jane Austen’s Emma – Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer: Jane Austen<\/strong><\/p>\n

Adapter: Ryan Craig<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director: Stephen Unwin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ryan Craig\u2019s adaptation is clever and witty, with sensible omissions, inevitable in cutting a 400-page novel to two and a bit hours on stage. Unfortunately it results in a slight shift towards caricature in the character of Emma Woodhouse who is seen as interfering in every situation and misinterpreting everyone\u2019s emotions, including her own. Omitted are all her good works and her genuine concern for others. The result is wonderfully entertaining, but not quite \u201cJane Austen\u2019s Emma\u201d.<\/p>\n

Craig begins with a ball, celebrating the marriage of Miss Taylor, the quondam governess, to Mr Weston, which Emma wrongly interprets as owing everything to her match-making skills. Thus he is able to dispense with the Westons who play a relatively minor role in the novel. The first half is then occupied with Emma\u2019s machinations on behalf of Harriet Smith, the orphan girl she takes an interest in. Farmer Robert Martin, Emma believes, is beneath her; she must aim higher, the local parson Mr Elton, with ensuing disasters.<\/p>\n

After the interval we are ready for a slightly more serious second half, working through the intrigues and concealments of Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax, but with low comedy from Mrs Elton, the bride the parson found in Bath. The famous picnic at Box Hill is still there, but with Harriet the object of Emma\u2019s intemperate behaviour rather than Miss Bates who has fallen victim to the need for cuts. Eventually, of course, Emma and Knightley, the voice of common sense throughout, marry.<\/p>\n

The production boasts vivid performances from the entire cast, all true to Austen as far as is possible. India Shaw-Smith is rather more nose-in-the-air than Austen\u2019s original, but is animated and charmingly dismissive \u2013 and admirably consistent. Mr Woodhouse occupies a rather larger place in this adaptation and William Chubb is the querulous valetudinarian to a T, with his concerns for the loss of Miss Taylor and the presence of thunder surfacing early. Ed Sayer\u2019s Mr Knightley is the soul of reason, even in his (mostly unheeded) criticism of Emma. Maiya Louise Thapar excels in her stage debut as Harriet, conveying her delusions and confusion admirably, and Oscar Batterham preens self-consciously as Mr Elton \u2013 and later dodges the bullets of married life adroitly, with\u00a0 Rose Quentin nouveau riche\u00a0to her fingertips as Mrs Elton.<\/p>\n

Both the adaptation and Stephen Unwin\u2019s production are consistently stylish and pacy, with an ensemble of five whisking furniture on and off and joining in the dances: Matthew Scott\u2019s music is perfect, even when he steals a bit of Handel for a particularly emotive dance.<\/p>\n

Runs until 11th September 2025, before continuing on tour<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\tThe Reviews Hub Star Rating<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Writer: Jane Austen Adapter: Ryan Craig Director: Stephen Unwin Ryan Craig\u2019s adaptation is clever and witty, with sensible…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,155058,65160,393,4884,155059,9267,24648,160371,148517,155061,155062,155063,1620,155064,16,15,155065],"class_list":{"0":"post-484126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-ed-sayer","10":"tag-emma","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-india-shaw-smith","14":"tag-jane-austen","15":"tag-lyceum-theatre","16":"tag-maiya-louise-thapar","17":"tag-matthew-scott","18":"tag-oscar-batterham","19":"tag-rose-quentin","20":"tag-ryan-craig","21":"tag-sheffield","22":"tag-stephen-unwin","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom","25":"tag-william-chubb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115341058904191337","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}