Austen’s Women

‘Gentlemen…’ Jane Austen, aka Rebecca Vaughan, starts with to an audience where men are a clear minority… ‘We certainly do not forget you as soon as you forget us. It is, perhaps, our fate rather than our merit. We cannot help ourselves. We live at home, quiet, confined, and our feelings prey upon us’.
It is not easy to perform a play based on a Jane Austen novel as a big part of the audience will most likely be fans of the books and have their own visions. Austen readers know the books by heart from the repeated readings and will frown at any variation of the perfect words. Rebeca Vaughan though, manages to pass the Austen-fan test with flying colours.
If you do not look at the program beforehand, the show provides a very engaging exercise to recognize the different books and women as they come alive on stage. Some of them are instantly recognizable even by the casual Austen readers, while others come straight from the unfinished novels.
While she changes from her night clothes to her evening gown, through different layers, she effortlessly goes through the personae of fourteen Austen women. A dressing table and screen accompany Rebecca on the stage and provide the tiny complements to her delivery.
Although the words come from different works, they are perfectly knitted together in the show. This arrangement causes some of the women to have somewhat stronger personalities, but one could argue it is just the effect of a modern interpretation.
Miss Bates invokes a special extra laughter and clap from the audience while you are completely convinced of seeing Mrs Norris and Harriet Smith on stage. Elizabeth Bennet should be less loud and Mrs Elton would sit in a more lady-like manner, but, from Anne Elliot’s arguments for the greater consitency of women to Jane Austens closing words from Emma, it is a an Austen treat. Well done Rebecca.

4/5

Agueda Grarko