Theatre review: The Watsons

Emma Watson (Grace Molony) was all set for a life of unusual financial independence for a Georgian woman, as the ward and heir to a wealthy dowager aunt. But after 14 years the aunt surprised everyone by marrying an officer who will now inherit everything instead, so Emma has been sent back to the comparative poverty of her own family, to stoically help her eldest sister Elizabeth (Paksie Vernon) care for their dying father. The only way out of being stuck there is marriage, and as the newcomer to the village Emma is the belle of the inevitable ball. She soon has three suitors to choose between: She likes the charming Tom Musgrave (Laurence Ubong Williams) but so does her other sister Margaret (Rhianna McGreevy) and besides, Tom is the story's designated cad. The character Jane Austen seems to have wanted her to end up with is parson Mr Howard (Tim Delap,) but while he might be a thoroughly decent man he doesn't seem like an interesting enough one to really engage someone as dynamic as our heroine.

Austen had got her setup and characters very much in place by this point of her novel The Watsons, including the final suitor, the county's most desirable bachelor Lord Osborne (Joe Bannister,) who's so taken with Emma he just about gets over his crippling social anxiety to actually propose marriage to her.

Emma accepts, which is where everything starts to go wrong. Because Austen never actually wrote that outcome, or any other; she shelved the incomplete novel after setting everything up, and although she went on to write her better-known books, never returned to this one. The popularity of Austen over the centuries being what it is, many have attempted - taking as their starting point a vague description of the outcome Jane gave her sister Cassandra - to complete it, and the latest is playwright Laura Wade, whose adaptation comes to the Menier Chocolate Factory after premiering last year in Chichester. But as proven the second Austen's source material ends and Emma immediately goes against the author's wishes, the characters don't always behave the way they're supposed to, and the playwright is forced to send Laura (Louise Ford,) an author avatar disguised as a servant, into the story.

When I first heard about The Watsons I was so excited by the premise I did toy with the idea of going to Chichester for it, but tickets were so hard to come by on dates I could actually make that I took what I correctly thought was a safe bet that if I waited it would soon come to London. It was worth the wait and would have been worth the trip, as Wade's play and Samuel West's production really hit all the comic notes you might hope for - right from the opening half-hour which is played straight as a witty Austen parlour comedy. Once the metatheatrical twist is revealed Ben Stones' set, which until then has done a great job of simply but ingeniously taking us to the various locations of the novel, starts to have the colour washed out of it, as it becomes an ever-blanker canvas for the possibilities opening up to the characters.

Laura's initial decision to tell Emma of her own fictional nature inevitably leads to a huge existential crisis for the character, but when the rest of them overhear it she's lumbered with the entire cast wanting a say in how their lives play out, and the play becomes an exploration of the writer's own blocks and insecurities. It also, like Home, I'm Darling, looks at our tendency to hold up certain periods of the past as ideals, conveniently ignoring the massive downsides; although as Wade is clearly a huge admirer of Austen's herself, it's not quite as harsh a criticism, as she sees the author's skill as what attracts so many fans rather than the fetishisation of the period. With the characters demanding a democratic vote on their own fates, the one real downside is the inevitable Brexit metaphor; and it's not particularly a downside in terms of how it's handled, so much as in I'd quite like, once in a blue moon, to have a couple of hours that don't feature anything to do with Brexit.

But there's just so many beautifully observed moments, from Laura waving around Austen's portrait on a £10 note to try and prove how beloved she became, to 21st-century objects starting to follow the playwright into her play, so Howard's nephew Charles (Teddy Probets, alternating with Isaac Forward and Sonny Fowler) finds her phone and gets addicted to Candy Crush (he needs the distraction - he's just found out he's going to stay ten years old forever.) Much to their consternation, Austen characters start talking like their new author and saying "fuck," and the stern Lady Osborne (Jane Booker) starts to wonder if she might be less uptight if housekeeper Nanny (Sally Bankes) moved in as her "personal companion." All in all The Watsons is a dizzying triumph, right to the playwright's hugely satisfying conclusion as to why Austen might have left the story unfinished. Its run at the Menier is sold out, and as the venue exists largely to create West End transfers I feel fairly confident in predicting that, once again, if you've missed this chance to see the production there'll be another one coming along soon enough.

The Watsons by Laura Wade, based on the unfinished novel by Jane Austen, is booking until the 16th of November at the Menier Chocolate Factory (returns only.)

Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.