EMMA by Jane Austen from Highlands Theatre Group

Next date: Sunday, 26 October 2025 | 03:00 PM to 05:30 PM

A bold, witty and fresh adaptation of Jane Austen's novel which, while thoroughly modern, retains the spirit and much of the language of the original.

It is night-time and an exhausted Jane Austen sleeps over the recently completed manuscript of her novel Emma. Four of her nieces steal in and , after some quarrelling, decide to act out the text . After her initial anger on being wakened, Jane allows the girls to begin to tell her story. The excitable teenage girls often try to take the story into their own realms of fantasy but are always brought back to the real text by Jane.

 

This modern adaptation of Jane Austen's famous story of social snobbery and coming of age is described as 'admirably lively’and daringly provocative ... it will give Austen fans a lot to ponder over and enjoy.

Emma is often referred to it as Jane Austen’s masterpiece. Contrary to her own well-known declaration that Emma Woodhouse would be “a heroine whom no one but myself will much like,” most readers do like Emma, in spite of her faults. She is a modern young woman: energetic, intelligent, self-directed, and an independent thinker. And—unlike Austen’s other heroines—she is rich and influential in her social circle; she doesn’t consider marriage to be her goal in life or the key to her future happiness. 

 

This adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, by Doon MacKichan and Martin Millar, was first performed during the 1998 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, transferring to the Tricycle Theatre, London, in October 1999. 

 

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