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I co-wrote 'Emma', a version
of the Jane Austen novel, with my friend Doon MacKichan a few years
ago. It was a lot of fun doing the play with Doon. Since the original
performance at the Edinburgh Festival, 'Emma' has been
acted by eleven different companies, in three continents,
and has always done well.
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Emma by Jane Austen
adapted by Martin Millar
and Doon MacKichan
The text of the play is published by Nick Hern books.
The cover shows Doon in costume.
ISBN 1-85459-499-0 |
Performances of Emma
1) Edinburgh Festival 1999
2) Watford Theatre 2000
3) Tricycle Theatre London 2000
4) Mountview School of Drama 2001
5) Edinburgh Festival 2002, by Bablake School, from Coventry,
6) California State University, Fullerton, Nov. 2002
7) Yokohama International School, Japan, December 2002
8) Youth Action Theatre, Hampton Hill Playhouse, Middlesex 2005
9) Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke, 2005
10) Arkle Theatre Company, Edinburgh Festival, 2005
11) Arkle Theatre Company, Wynd Theatre, Melrose, October
2005
12) Amicus Productions, Toronto, December 2005.
Poster for Japanese production at the
Yokohama International School.
Designed by Run Igawa.
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Poster for Youth Action Theatre,
Middlesex. |
Nicola Alexis, Lorraine Brunning, Gillian Hanna
and Lucy Scott at the Tricycle Theatre. |
Flier for the Arkle Theatre Company
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Tricycle Theatre, London.
In prospect it seemed as inviting as King Lear with music by some boyband or, if you want a closer parallel, a Mozart opera rejigged by the creators of Trainspotting. A deconstructionist version of Emma at the Tricycle in north London, which begins with Jane Austen's nieces bopping about to modern rock before pinching her unfinished novel and reciting the famous opening about the heroine's looks, intelligence and wealth? Surely one would rather see yet another attempt to mimic a tired BBC costume drama, once again without the budget actually to afford the costumes.
As it turns out, no. I cannot imagine what F.R. Leavis or the other gurus of my youth would make of Martin Millar and Doon MacKichan's adaptation of a novel that stands so high in what they called The Great Tradition. Yet the wonderfully ironic plot, the moral thrust and the emotional tenor survive even the extra manhandling provided by the director, Guy Retallack. Somehow his team has brought a new and distinctively theatrical vitality to Emma.
The seven-person cast is led by Jaye Griffiths, a calm, commanding figure who doubles as Austen and Emma's eventual husband, Mr Knightley. Despite the switch of gender, there is logic in this, for that gentleman is a bit of a know-it-all and, especially when he is ticking off his wife-to-be for her busybodying arrogance, clearly his author's voice. Several of the production's more wayward inventions can be similarly defended. If you are committed to a non-naturalistic approach, isn't dressing Mrs Elton in a pink topper and a feather boa an economical way of signalling her awful vulgarity?
Actually, the trickery goes further than that. Austen's
four nieces, frustrated by their aunt's failure to
write the romance they want, shriek like teens at
a punk gig when Adam Croasdell's Frank Churchill,
the most obvious candidate as Emma's husband, comes
sauntering onstage. The dreadful Elton makes his
own amorous move by leaping onto the heroine with
what he tells her is a "tumescent swelling".
Often the subtext comes grotesquely bubbling to the
surface. Anachronisms recur, and some of them, notably
the jokily persistent references to Proust, are pretty
abstruse. Yet someone ignorant of the plot would
have no trouble following it.
That's largely due to Isabel Brook's delightfully smug Emma, Gillian Hanna's twittering Miss Bates, and the skill of the other performers when they have to double, treble or, in the case of John Elmes, quadruple roles. But it is the feel they collectively project that finally justifies the evening. They love and respect Emma and, in their own ebullient, mischievous, maybe perverse way, they show it.
Palace Theatre, Watford.
This irreverent but affectionate adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, by actress and comedian Doon MacKichan and novelist Martin Millar, is so speedy you could call it an Austen Allegro. Several hundred pages of snobbery, wit, heartbreak and romance are skimmed over in just 100 minutes, accompanied by contemporary visual gags, sardonic asides, and music from bands as diverse as the Jackson Five and the Prodigy.
Although it is disconcerting to see so genteel a literary classic subjected to such rough treatment, it can't be denied that Austen's story and characters emerge pretty much unscathed. The basic idea is that Austen herself is acting out a first draft of Emma with her four eager nieces. These anachronistically streetwise youngsters
bay for a romantic hero, snogging scenes, or
just "for something exciting to happen". They are not always
satisfied, but plenty of odd stuff occurs.
The characters periodically question the text, and
Emma herself gives vent to some conspicuously modern-sounding
thoughts. She also does a ribbon-dance to the Jacksons' "ABC" when
in love, and smacks herself repeatedly on the head
when expressing chagrin. The effect of Guy Retallack's
rowdy production - tokenishly dressed by designer
Dora Shweitzer - is lightly mocking, utterly haphazard,
but oddly true to the spirit, if not the letter,
of the novel.
MacKichan, arguably the funniest woman on television at the moment, plays Emma with a pert, sing-song delivery which suggests a gently ironic distance from the material. The fact that 10 years have elapsed since she and Millar first conceived the show in a pub in Brixton accounts for the (ahem) maturity she brings to the role of the matchmaking 21-year-old. Katharine Rogers doubles a rather mannish Austen with a convincing portrayal of Emma's partner-in-banter, Mr Knightley, while Adam Croasdell's Frank Churchill could supplant Colin Firth's Mr Darcy in the fantasies of women who favour a well-stuffed pair of breeches.
Michael Matus and the four "nieces" fill
up the remaining roles with broadly comic cameos.
This adaptation is rough and ramshackle, and will
doubtless offend some purists.
But the regard that MacKichan and Millar have for Austen is just as visible throughout as their sense of fun.
This boisterous adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma by Martin Millar and Doon MacKichan is a world away from the delicate two inch ivory paintings that Austen likened her art to. It is an irreverent kickabout, a pop art cartoon that, fortunately, succeeds in being funny.
The tale is told at first by Austen's young nieces (Spice Girls rather than nice girls, right down to their spangly trainers) who demand that they be allowed to act the novel out with their aunt. As the story progresses some of the 'real' characters take over, the gaps filled in by the nieces and their aunt.
The collision of modern props with period ones and between the nieces and the novel's characters is disconcerting. It is a peculiar framing device that seems capricious rather than calculated, but that is not necessarily a criticism. It allows the play to escape the stays of genteel costume comedy convention for an unrestrained, irreverent, high energy romp.
The tone leaps between sacrilegious farce and respectful homage but some wonderful performances ensure this is entertaining rather than jarring.
Michael Matus is very funny as both the doddering invalid Mr Woodhouse and as a creepy, geeky Mr Elton. MacKichan is an able but surprisingly straight Emma. Perhaps best of all is Robin Weaver who plays one of the nieces playing that blandest of creations, Harriet Smith, as a graceless, vapid country girl with a constant face-splitting grin. It is an odd, but excellent, retelling that must have the old spinster spinning in her grave.
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