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Post by Ranger on Dec 27, 2023 16:29:36 GMT
We’re less than two years away from Jane Austens 250th birthday (December 16, 2025).
A lot of Jane Austen fans seem excited about it already (I.e Jane Austen societies are planning for it) and there was a bit of a storm recently over the funding for her 250th birthday statue near Winchester Cathedral.
I think Jane Austen adaptations will benefit from this anniversary. For example there’s a new adaptation ofNorthanger Abbey in Bristol (coming soon, I think). If any new Austen show does well in the next year, her anniversary and interest created by it might give new shows a lift and get them national tours
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Post by theatreismagic on Dec 28, 2023 12:48:54 GMT
I do so hope you are right! The costumes and set design alone would be wonderful to see. I wonder which book would translate best to the stage? I would love to see Pride and Prejudice.
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Post by Ranger on Dec 28, 2023 14:55:57 GMT
I think they could all be adapted well depending how creative and faithful the adaptation is.
One interesting that might happen is that, with interest in Austen peeking as we near her anniversary (Austen tourism increasing etc) and with theatre attendance down, there might be multiple theatres across England preparing an adaptation of the same book without anyone being aware of what’s going on.
Since the books are in the public domain, anyone is free to make an adaptation.
Artistic directors will maybe want to be careful. Will everyone have a laugh if they all produce the same play?
I thought it interesting that Jane Austen house in Chawton did an adaptation of Mansfield Park on the lawn in front of the museum. Didn’t see it, but it’s probably exactly the kind of things tourists will love., and it’ll get people down to that area to pay for the 250,000 pound statue of Austen.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Dec 28, 2023 14:57:01 GMT
There are more than 20 scripts available for stage versions of P&P
I directed one of them just over a decade ago and read a good number of them in search for the most viable.
Many reduce the number of daughters to three which was not something I was willing to countenance.
One of the better versions was by AA Milne of Winnie the Pooh fame. But that was adapted under the title 'Miss Elizabeth Bennet' which was a stumbling block for a piece that would be selling to the Oxford Tourist Market.
In the end, I discovered an unpublished version by Peter Kenvyn Jones. He adapted it for one of the drama schools and it had a faithful adaptation with clearly drawn characters and a good ensemble cast.
Peter was very helpful with coming to rehearsals and a performance and it was the company's best performing summer show with attendances of 112% of capacity! Being a garden show, we could just put more seats out.
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Post by Dawnstar on Dec 28, 2023 16:11:43 GMT
Many reduce the number of daughters to three which was not something I was willing to countenance. I'm guessing Mary & Kitty are the ones who are cut? It feels like it would significantly reduce Mrs Bennet's desperation if she only had three daughters to offload rather than five!
I did see a stage adaptation of P&P about 15 years ago but I can't say I found it memorable. I believe it had the requisite number of daughters but the only cast member I can actually recall was Susan Hampshire as Mrs Bennet.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Dec 28, 2023 16:13:11 GMT
It was indeed Mary and Kitty 2ho frequently got cut on adaptations. And you are right that the plight of the family is far less acute with only 3 daughters to offload!!
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Post by Jan on Dec 28, 2023 17:18:42 GMT
There's an adaptation of Northanger Abbey at the Orange Tree Jan 20th - Feb 24th. It is a coproduction with the Octagon Bolton, Stephen Joseph Scarborough and Theatre by the Lake. I am ambivalent about it because the publicity contains the formulation "by Zoe Cooper inspired by the novel by Jane Austen" and the dread words "a bold reimagining". I will wait for reviews but will likely give it a miss.
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Post by cavocado on Dec 28, 2023 17:20:45 GMT
It would be nice to see Laura Wade's The Watsons, which I missed due to its Covid cancellation.
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Post by Jan on Dec 28, 2023 17:49:06 GMT
What other anniversaries and expiry of copyrights are imminent ? It used to be more common to mark them than it is now - as I remarked elsewhere the 400th anniversary of Moliere’s birth went largely unmarked in 2022. At one time the NT might have marked the Austen anniversary in some way but one assumes they will deliberately ignore it this time - as noted above these occasions are potential money spinners for regional theatres.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Dec 28, 2023 21:55:05 GMT
I expected Shaw to get more of a revival after he fell out of copyright but that didn't happen. Though COVID played a part in that I suspect
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Post by Jan on Dec 29, 2023 11:51:35 GMT
2024 marks 200 years since the death of Lord Byron. It would be a bold (or foolhardy) theatre indeed who revived one of his plays in celebration.
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Post by Ranger on Dec 29, 2023 11:53:28 GMT
I learned on television last evening, there are likely some tortoises born the same year as Jane Austen that are still alive. Amazing to believe.
Austen's brother Frank had some longevity living into his 90s and becoming an Admiral in the Royal Navy, and had actually served under Admiral Nelson just prior to Trafalgar. There's a good biography of Austen by Claire Tomalin, who is married to Michael Frayn. One wonders if he ever tried to do a biography of Jane Austen for the stage.
Another person in this mix who was recently (2022) commemorated with an anniversary was Napoeleon. A newspaper story/review recently about the film Napoleon said that commemoration of Napoleon didn't really catch the popular imagination in the way organizers had hoped (but the film was receiving a lot of attention in the French press at least)
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Post by alessia on Dec 29, 2023 12:24:45 GMT
It would be nice to see Laura Wade's The Watsons, which I missed due to its Covid cancellation. that one was brilliant! I am still hoping it will come back sometime |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Dec 29, 2023 13:58:46 GMT
It would be nice to see Laura Wade's The Watsons, which I missed due to its Covid cancellation. that one was brilliant! I am still hoping it will come back sometime It was scheduled for the chocolate factory wasnt it? They need a hit and to put some bums on those padded benches |
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Post by Jan on Dec 29, 2023 14:33:23 GMT
I learned on television last evening, there are likely some tortoises born the same year as Jane Austen that are still alive. Amazing to believe. In 2017 scientists photographed a Greenland shark that they estimate was born around 1627 which given the uncertainty might have been alive at the same time as Shakespeare. They think there may be other Greenland sharks alive today that were born before Christopher Columbus |
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Post by bee on Dec 29, 2023 15:57:05 GMT
that one was brilliant! I am still hoping it will come back sometime It was scheduled for the chocolate factory wasnt it? They need a hit and to put some bums on those padded benches It did go ahead at the Chocolate Factory, having transferred there from Chichester. After its success there it was scheduled for a West End run in 2020. |
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Post by demelza on Dec 29, 2023 21:14:05 GMT
What other anniversaries and expiry of copyrights are imminent ? It used to be more common to mark them than it is now - as I remarked elsewhere the 400th anniversary of Moliere’s birth went largely unmarked in 2022. At one time the NT might have marked the Austen anniversary in some way but one assumes they will deliberately ignore it this time - as noted above these occasions are potential money spinners for regional theatres. The last Sherlock Holmes stories had their copyright expire at the start of the year in the US — I believe that means that they're public domain everywhere now, if that counts? |
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Post by Someone in a tree on Dec 30, 2023 9:44:31 GMT
What other anniversaries and expiry of copyrights are imminent ? It used to be more common to mark them than it is now - as I remarked elsewhere the 400th anniversary of Moliere’s birth went largely unmarked in 2022. At one time the NT might have marked the Austen anniversary in some way but one assumes they will deliberately ignore it this time - as noted above these occasions are potential money spinners for regional theatres. The last Sherlock Holmes stories had their copyright expire at the start of the year in the US — I believe that means that they're public domain everywhere now, if that counts? For anyone who is interested, the Watermill Theatre are staging a new musical, Sherlock Holmes and the poison wood early next year. The cast recording is already out. |
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Post by theatresellers on Jan 2, 2024 14:17:02 GMT
There are more than 20 scripts available for stage versions of P&P I directed one of them just over a decade ago and read a good number of them in search for the most viable. Many reduce the number of daughters to three which was not something I was willing to countenance. One of the better versions was by AA Milne of Winnie the Pooh fame. But that was adapted under the title 'Miss Elizabeth Bennet' which was a stumbling block for a piece that would be selling to the Oxford Tourist Market. In the end, I discovered an unpublished version by Peter Kenvyn Jones. He adapted it for one of the drama schools and it had a faithful adaptation with clearly drawn characters and a good ensemble cast. Peter was very helpful with coming to rehearsals and a performance and it was the company's best performing summer show with attendances of 112% of capacity! Being a garden show, we could just put more seats out. The A.A. Milne version might now be in the public domain (Winnie the Pooh is) and therefore the title could be changed back to Pride and Prejudice to please the Oxford Tourist Market. But it sounds like you found a good version anyways. I’m surprised Peter Clayton Jones didn’t turn P&P into a musical as he might be qualified to do. |
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Post by Ranger on Jan 2, 2024 17:28:18 GMT
There are more than 20 scripts available for stage versions of P&P I directed one of them just over a decade ago and read a good number of them in search for the most viable. Many reduce the number of daughters to three which was not something I was willing to countenance. One of the better versions was by AA Milne of Winnie the Pooh fame. But that was adapted under the title 'Miss Elizabeth Bennet' which was a stumbling block for a piece that would be selling to the Oxford Tourist Market. In the end, I discovered an unpublished version by Peter Kenvyn Jones. He adapted it for one of the drama schools and it had a faithful adaptation with clearly drawn characters and a good ensemble cast. Peter was very helpful with coming to rehearsals and a performance and it was the company's best performing summer show with attendances of 112% of capacity! Being a garden show, we could just put more seats out. The A.A. Milne version might now be in the public domain (Winnie the Pooh is) and therefore the title could be changed back to Pride and Prejudice to please the Oxford Tourist Market. But it sounds like you found a good version anyways. I’m surprised Peter Clayton Jones didn’t turn P&P into a musical as he might be qualified to do. On the topic of the Oxford Tourist Market, it's interesting to note that Austen's first title for Pride & Prejudice was "First Impressions." She only changed it to Pride and Prejudice after someone else published a novel with the title of First Impressions. Moreover, I'm not exactly sure about dates here, but all of Austen's books were delayed in coming-to-market by several years. If Pride and Prejudice hadn't been delayed, she might never have needed to change the title. She sold her first novel (Northanger Abbey) for 10 pounds to a publisher who didn't print it for 6 years, which caused her to send a letter to the publisher (under a false name, which is a completely other story) to try to buy it back from him, which she did for the same 10 pounds she sold it for. Then she, through her brother Henry, got a new publisher and published Sense & Sensibility (many years after it was written). Pride and Prejudice followed a year or two later. On the topic of copyright, Austen didn't even negotiate for copyright on several of her books, including Pride & Prejudice (and Northanger Abbey). |
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Post by oxfordsimon on Jan 2, 2024 18:31:50 GMT
There are more than 20 scripts available for stage versions of P&P I directed one of them just over a decade ago and read a good number of them in search for the most viable. Many reduce the number of daughters to three which was not something I was willing to countenance. One of the better versions was by AA Milne of Winnie the Pooh fame. But that was adapted under the title 'Miss Elizabeth Bennet' which was a stumbling block for a piece that would be selling to the Oxford Tourist Market. In the end, I discovered an unpublished version by Peter Kenvyn Jones. He adapted it for one of the drama schools and it had a faithful adaptation with clearly drawn characters and a good ensemble cast. Peter was very helpful with coming to rehearsals and a performance and it was the company's best performing summer show with attendances of 112% of capacity! Being a garden show, we could just put more seats out. The A.A. Milne version might now be in the public domain (Winnie the Pooh is) and therefore the title could be changed back to Pride and Prejudice to please the Oxford Tourist Market. But it sounds like you found a good version anyways. I’m surprised Peter Clayton Jones didn’t turn P&P into a musical as he might be qualified to do. Peter did compose a final song which we performed (though the cast didn't like it!) Milne died in 1956 so his works will enter the Public Domain at the start of 2027. The rules are different in different countries which is frustrating. The other downside of his P&P adaptation was the three act structure. That isn't ideal for outdoor shows (particularly as we had to start at 8pm due to college events) |
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Post by Ranger on Jan 6, 2024 15:35:40 GMT
Jane Austen spent the first twenty five years of her life on a farm in a village in the south of England, and she had minimal formal schooling.
It’s amazing how elitist Austen is viewed now that her face is on a piece of money and her books are taught in schools.
These are two quotes from Isobel Mcarthur, the author of Pride & Prejudice (*Sort of), where she's very candid about her perceptions of Austen before she got to know anything about Austen.
The most famous and wealthiest novelist of Austen's day was Sir Walter Scott. I wonder how he is viewed in Scotland today? Is this just an England vs. Scotland thing? Do English youth who haven't read Austen view her in the same way Mcarthur says Scottish people do?
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Post by Jan on Jan 7, 2024 15:34:00 GMT
Jane Austen spent the first twenty five years of her life on a farm in a village in the south of England, and she had minimal formal schooling. Another writer from a working class poor background who had no formal schooling and whose reputation today is somewhat at odds with that reality is Noel Coward. People assume he was like the people he wrote about but he wasn't - for example his career was characterised by extremely hard work, almost obsessively so, quite at odds with the idle rich he often wrote about. |
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Post by Ranger on Jan 10, 2024 13:01:53 GMT
Jane Austen spent the first twenty five years of her life on a farm in a village in the south of England, and she had minimal formal schooling. Another writer from a working class poor background who had no formal schooling and whose reputation today is somewhat at odds with that reality is Noel Coward. People assume he was like the people he wrote about but he wasn't - for example his career was characterised by extremely hard work, almost obsessively so, quite at odds with the idle rich he often wrote about. Coward had interesting employment for Britain during World War two, being engaged by Winston Churchill to fly around the world and sing to the troops wherever they were fighting. Churchill himself turned to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice during the war. archives.chu.cam.ac.uk/collections/research-guides/bulldogs-copy-of-jane-austen/ |
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Post by TallPaul on Jan 10, 2024 13:33:28 GMT
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