Director Matthew Chapman has a clear talent for producing quality productions of ‘period’ plays, and his current production of “The Watsons” for UATG demonstrates his skill by the bucket load.
“The Watsons” is an unusual play in its structure, but it is not entirely unique in its conceit. It is a dramatisation by playwright Laura Wade of a Jane Austen novel of the same name. Wade also wrote the 2019 Olivier Award winning “Home, I’m Darling” that was nicely produced locally by Therry Theatre in 2023. The unusual thing about “The Watsons” is that the original novel is an unfinished work, but Wade has decided to finish it, sort of, and it is from this that the magic and much comedy derives.
Without divulging the key twists and turns in the plot, it is sufficient to say that Wade interpolates ‘herself’ as a character into the play (the “Servant”) and enlists the help of the other characters to polish her proposed conclusion. As intimated above, this theatrical device is not entirely unique, and Wade likely takes inspiration from Luigi Pirandello’s 1921 play “Six Characters in Search of an Author” – it’s title says it all. Also, in 2000, playwright Dawson Nichols wrote (and performed in a subsequent Adelaide Fringe) a play called “Escher’s Hands” (and produced locally in 2021 by Galleon Theatre Group). In it two authors collaborate to create a fiction, but as their work develops their invented characters come to life and in turn control the authors. The iconic image of M.C. Escher’s famous Drawing Hands, which depicts two hands drawing each other into existence, visually captures and suggests this commutative process. “The Watsons” is a bit like this too – the Servant (i.e. Wade) writes an ending to the novel, but the characters react – sometimes very funnily, and sometimes more philosophically – and there is a negotiation process.
This theatrical device is highly engaging but fraught. The cast need to carefully step backwards and forwards between the words of Austen and those of The Servant/Wade, that are ‘Austen-esque’ in style, and they do it brilliantly.
There is so much to love about this production, but it could easily all go wrong. Chapman has chosen his cast very carefully – a mix of experience and freshness – and has carefully drilled them to adopt the required etiquettes and manners of Regency period upper-class characters, and to be able to adjust their style and mannerisms in act two when The Servant starts the process of imposing a confected ending to the story line.
There are no weak links in the cast – not one – and what struck this reviewer was that every member of the large cast was always doing something interesting and appropriately reacting to what was going on around them. In fact, it was difficult to know where to look at times! Some perhaps worked their reactions a little too hard at times (less is more, is a good lesson), but the ‘off dialogue’ acting of everyone was first-rate. Chapman has had a clear hand in this, but his job has been made easier by the natural skill and quality of actors like Imogen Deller-Evans, Laura Antoniazzi, Lindy LeCornu, Maxwell Whigham and especially Thomas Midena, who is a young and talented actor to watch out for.
Space does not allow to write about the individual accomplishments of this fabulous ensemble of actors. One can only say they all – I repeat, all – did extremely well in crafting compelling, idiosyncratic and totally engaging characters. The set too was delightfully representational, and resembled an unfinished hand-written manuscript. The costuming and hairdressing also gave a sense of authenticity, and the uncomplicated sound and lighting plots did just enough to assist the audience come to terms with the temporal shifts in act two.
The season is apparently sold out, but try and get a ticket if you can. This show is a winner.
