Theatre Review: Persuasion

I've told you all about my Pride & Prejudice engagement before… how my Mr Darcy got down on one knee at Stanage Edge in the Peak District, where Elizabeth Bennett (aka Keira Knightley) stood in the film version of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice.

Yes, I am a huge, huge fan of Austen – so what better way to celebrate the week of our 10-year wedding anniversary than to go and see Jane Austen’s Persuasion at my favourite theatre, Theatre Royal Windsor?

This production is a brand new version of Jane Austen's final novel, adapted for the stage by acclaimed playwright Stephanie Dale and directed by theatre's award-winning Kate McGregor. And it's superb, with music performed by a hard-working cast of six actors, who portray 20 characters between them and all play an instrument. Pretty impressive.

If you're unfamiliar with the story, it's about (one of my favourite heroines), straight-talking, compassionate Anne Elliot (Ceri-Lyn Cissone), who fell in love with the handsome but poor naval officer Frederick Wentworth (Jason Ryall) when she was 19 years old.

Lady Russell, acting in place of Anne's late mother, and the rest of her ambitious family, persuaded Anne to break off the engagement, saying he was an unsuitable match. Wentworth goes off to sea and Anne is left heartbroken and haunted by what might have been.

Austen's work was groundbreaking at the time, some 200 years ago, in that it revealed the female stream of consciousness to her readers. And in this play, Anne shares her deepest, darkest thoughts with the audience and we discover what torment being separated from her love has caused her. It gripped me right from the opening, as it begins:

'Sometimes all I can see is blue; the blue of the sea.

All I can hear is the falling of the notes on a piano.

And for a time, it goes dark.

The seasons carry me; I am at their mercy.

I have no desire to harm anyone or anything and yet, and yet,

because I could not bear to lose my family,

I devastated him

and for that I shall be eternally tormented.'

We can all empathise with Anne, and I loved the way in this production she expresses her feelings through playing the piano. It's extremely moving.

Seven years later, the tables have turned – Wentworth returns from sea a rich man and the Elliot family is now in financial trouble. Their home, the grand Kellynch Hall, will be let out, and the family will move to Bath until their financial situation improves.

Could a brief encounter be the second chance Anne's been hoping for, to get Wentworth to forgive her for letting herself be persuaded years ago? To win him back, she will have to discover the strength of her own mind, to put her romantic love first, not the love of her family.

We all like a bit of romance, and with added humour, beautiful music and brilliant drama, this truly is the perfect play.

Don't miss it; it's on this week until 26th May.

Wed–Sat 8pm, Sat 4.45pm

Tickets from £15

http://www.theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk/