Jane Austens’s Emma has come to Sheffield, which provided ample comedic opportunity for me as I watched it whilst sat next to my friend Emma – whom I would turn and point at whenever the titular character’s name was dropped, which, as you can imagine, was often. She found it very funny and not annoying I can assure you.
Adapted for the stage by Ryan Craig, the production has a distinct comedy-of-manners vibe to it, reminiscent of the works of Oscar Wilde and Noel Coward to a certain extent, and with a handful of very witty lines that landed well with the audience, most often delivered by William Chubb’s Mr Woodhouse, the comic relief older character in the show, who stole almost every scene he was in, especially when he narrated his breakfast, lunch and dinner routines to other character who, importantly, hadn’t asked him to. Other strong performances came from Maiya Louise Thapar as Harriet Smith, who delivered a note-perfect performance as her character, who was every bit as charming and funny as she was endearing and sympathetic. Oscar Batterham also gave a very fun performance as Philip Elton, the long-suffering husband of Augusta (played by Rose Quentin). Batterham was gloriously indignant and struck a perfect balance between his character’s repression and charisma at the same time. It was a very impressive and fun performance.
Where the show struggled was in the lead performances from India Shaw-Smith and Ed Sayer as Emma Woodhouse and George Knightley respectively. The principle dynamic of the story, the relationship between the two troublemaking pot-stirrers that eventually becomes romantic should be the beating heart of the narrative, and when the chemistry between these two is lacking – as it is here – it hurts the entire story. Individually, their performances were fine, perfectly adequate, but such an unengaging dynamic between two characters and actors who share so much stage time exclusively through with the other makes several vital scenes drag and become profoundly uninteresting.
Production wise, the set design is understandably minimalist given the nature of this as a touring show. Two trees sit weirdly in the background throughout the entire thing, and a ceiling hangs above the stage throughout. The ceiling is undeniably impressive, though it looked a bit too much like the window that Captain Kirk looks through on the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek, which may have just been distracting to me, but was distracting nonetheless. Whenever stagehands came on to remove chairs they would do a weird little bob down to get them, which the show seemed to find way funnier than the audience did.
An aspect of production that did work was the lighting, particularly in the second act. The cut to black with the backdrop remaining lit made the actors become very picturesque silhouettes as they transition to the next scene, which oftentime looked very beautiful and almost cinematic.
In the end, Emma was a pretty boring adaptation of a pretty boring story, told in a boring way. Despite a few strong performances and very impressive lighting moments, the show just doesn’t shine anywhere near often enough to justify its own existence (not to mention runtime.) There is a moment towards the end of the show where Emma says “I’m… fine”. And I agree.
Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
