Kate’s Score: 3 Regency stripes.
In adapting Jane Austen’s Persuasion for the Stage, Tim Luscombe has, for the most part, turned out a most creditable script. There are always challenges in bringing a novel to the stage and a playwright cannot hope to please all the fans. With some judicial cuts of minor characters and events, the story has been neatly condensed for the stage and for our times. The novel originally only had to mention the war and images would be conjured for a Regency audience of the war with Napoleon. Luscombe understands this and gives a powerful opening scene which frames not only the story but the hero’s state of mind for a 21st century audience. And throughout the play there are flashbacks to explain the context of Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth’s relationship. But there is one unforgivable omission. Wentworth’s love letter to Anne, which brings the two central figures together, can be recited by heart by Austen aficionados everywhere. In the world of literature, it is considered one of the greatest love letters penned – the unforgettable “You pierce my soul” up there with Beethoven’s “Immortal beloved” letter. Anne reads this alone and is overwhelmed (as is anyone who reads it). So to take this letter and turn it into dialogue, and not include that phrase in that dialogue, is a staggering gap in comprehending Austen’s world and fandom. This unevenness becomes a signature for the production.
Austen favoured the Navy, and Persuasion reflects her affection in its motifs and movements. Anne Elliot (Rose Treloar) is the rock against and around which the desires of others ebb and flow with varying degrees of passion. Treloar gives us an intelligent Anne, stoic and steadfast. Unfortunately, she is not matched in her Frederick Wentworth. Kendall Drury does not deliver the force of personality necessary; there is no seething passion or restless energy in Anne’s presence, and it is impossible to reconcile the ambitious, passionate, grudge-bearing Wentworth of the novel with Drury’s performance. This is disappointing as the resolution of the final coming together should provide immense satisfaction. Instead, one is left felling that Anne could have done better! Angela Johnston as the self-absorbed Mary and Nick Fitzsimmons as the put-upon and neglectful husband Charles provide delicious comic relief.  Natasha Macdonald, Vitas Varnas and Catharine Waters handle their multiple roles well and find nice ways to differentiate and the rest of the ensemble present effective cameos. But there is an unevenness here too. Not in the performances as such but in the style of performance. Some are naturalistic, some stylized , some period, some modern in delivery. This unresolved tension of multiple acting styles makes for a few jarring moments in the production. Likewise, some moments are beautifully done. Anne-in-the-middle of husband and wife or father and daughter serve to highlight Anne’s character and role. Other moments seem awkwardly choreographed.
The action of the play is set in a design which seems to have begun with one designer and finished by another. This is possible as there is no credit for set design. What begins as a concept is finished literally. Promising wave-like flats and a platform have neither the scenic art of Bath stone or the blue-grey of Lyme stone but what appears to be wallpaper. The raised platform is under-used as seating; instead chairs are dragged on and off. Ivy drapes incongruently on a set of a play where the motifs are all nautical and whose function must, necessarily, be multi-purpose. Yet the bones are there. Sound and lighting design is more cohesive (Mehran Mortezaei) and the opening certainly engages the audience; but actors struggle to find the light at times.
Similarly, costumes vary. Some fit beautifully, others sit oddly. This is surprising from Susan Carveth who is an excellent costumier; so I am led to suspect she did not have a hand in some of them. The decision to not have the naval officers in uniform was a little disappointing. Although the war is over, the career sailors are ashore in a time of peace but this does not mean they have given up their commissions. Uniforms give them a sense of impermanence, they are men who must come and go with the tide. For theatrical purposes, and to provide that Austen contrast between Naval personnel and their bonds of brotherhood and the less-deserving civilians; the uniforms of scene one would have suited the play’s themes better and been a valid choice.
This is a show characterised by hits and misses. There are moments of vision and creativity and then the retreat alarm is sounded, as though the director (Trudy Ritchie) did not trust her own judgement – which at times was very on point. Some transitions are well thought through such as the sighting of Lady Dalrymple. At other times we are transported from place to place without guide or indication of time and location. Pacier scenes are done well but poignant moments stumble.
Persuasion is, in some ways, a love letter from Jane Austen to the Navy. This production does not embrace this; so although a well-manned ship, it is somewhat fog-bound.
Kate Stratford – On The Town
Photography: Craig O’Regan
Persuasion
Jane Austen
29 Jun – 17 Aug 2019
Fri & Sat 7:30pm
Sun 4:30pm
Venue: Genesian Theatre
Theatre Company: Genesian Theatre
Duration: N/A
Persuasion is a story of a love diverted. Anne Elliott and Frederick Wentworth fall deeply in love, and yet their happiness is thwarted when Anne is persuaded by another to decline his offer of marriage. An entire war and 8 years of time separate them, when once again they are reintroduced…
This production of Persuasion will be a traditional text transported to an ethereal set that allows the story to move through different locations and time.
Ticket Prices
Adults $30, Concession $25
