A collaboration that has led to a highly successful and entertaining production.
Persuasion was the last novel completed by Jane Austen and published six months after her death.
It tells the story of a second chance, the reawakening of love between Anne Elliot played by Charlie Potter and Abby Lyons and Captain Frederick Wentworth played by Dan Harward. Anne had been persuaded by her family to reject Wentworth's proposal eight years earlier, when he was a poor naval officer. Now Wentworth has returned with rank and wealth, meeting Anne again by chance. Anne must decide whether to follow her heart or duty.
This production has been given a different take on Austen's story, using an actor-led approach starting without a script, but using some of the original lines and ensuring they keep to the story. All while using contemporary movements and interpretation.
The first surprise is the use of two actors playing the role of Anne. One is the young Anne and the other present day Anne. This enables young Anne to be the bubbly voice of youth and encourages the present-day Anne to act differently than she probably should. It works wonderfully well and gives us more of an insight into what is going on inside her head.
The set is a mixture of small platforms and suitcases in the first act, which are replaced with colourful umbrellas in the second. It is remarkably simple yet effective.
The lighting by Devon Heaphy was well-plotted and operated.
The second surprise for me was the wonderful singing that the cast delivered a capella in the second act. They sounded polished and it was a lovely moment.
The entire cast was strong, so much so that it is difficult to single any of them out, but the two Annes were both in a league of their own with very convincing performances. I also particularly enjoyed the always "rather poorly" Eva Lockhart as Mary Musgrove.
I thought the use of staged movement in static group scenes was inspired, with the background cast performing a number of movements in rotation to make these scenes more interesting and while I was often watching them, it did not draw me away from the story.
Many of the cast played more than one character, some of whom died reasonably early and when they did, they removed their outer costume and placed them in a suitcase which symbolised a coffin where flowers we sometimes placed.
Being an actor-led production, the cast did not have a director, but rather a Dramaturg (someone who studies the dramatic composition and ensures the representation of the main elements of drama on stage) in Anna Renton-Green. She has delivered a play that is entertaining and flows well, mixed with some innovative ideas.
This was a highly successful production and keeps Stagecraft on top of its game,
Would highly recommend this.
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