Rebecca Vaughan will star in a one-woman play, Austen’s Women, which gives voice to some of the most famous women in literature at Worthing’s Connaught Theatre on March 21st.
In a solo performance which uses only Austen’s words, Rebecca Vaughan considers whether women’s romantic lives have altered since the novels were written, by revisiting some of the most rewarding moments from all six major novels including Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma as well as lesser-known works such as Austen’s Juvenilia and the unfinished Sanditon.
The play includes scenes of high-comedy as well as pathos during which the souls of Emma Woodhouse, Lizzy Bennet, Mrs Norris, Miss Bates and nine other carefully-observed women are theatrically deconstructed. Divorced from their historical context and separated from the men who surround them, the women present a distillation of 19th century feminism and speak about love, friendship and improprieties.
Austen’s Women was a sell-out at Edinburgh Festival in 2009 and Adelaide Festival in 2010. It is adapted and performed by Rebecca Vaughan and directed by Guy Masterson whose credits include Olivier Award winning play Morecambe.
The play has been created by Dyad Productions, a company which specialises in classic theatre with a contemporary twist, to appeal to both Austen-lovers as well as those new to the writer’s work.
Austen’s Women can be seen at the Connaught Theatre, Union Place, Worthing. BN11 1LG on Friday March 21st at 7.30pm. Tickets, priced at £14.50, concessions £12.50, Friends of Worthing Theatres £11.50, can be purchased from the box office on 01903 206 206 or online at www.worthingtheatres.co.uk
