Anna Burnside reviews Bard in the Botanics’ adaptation of the Jane Austen classic.
One of the many strengths of Bard in the Botanics, now in its 25th year, is the way it uses 500-year-old texts to illuminate the issues of the 21st century. One of the most important reasons any director must address is “why now” and, for the most part, artistic director Gordon Barr and his associate Jennifer Dick take this head on.
In Emma, not so much.
Jane Austen’s tale of a meddlesome matchmaker is a brilliant dramatic construction, but it has been so comprehensively adapted on screens of all sizes that it’s hard to believe that any of its machinations could come as a surprise to the audience.
Dick adapts with this at the back of her mind, working to the company’s limitations, allowing for doubling - there are recurring jokes about colds, to explain why they are not on stage at key moments - and playing to key cast members’ strengths.
Alan Steele, for example, is delicious as Emma’s fussy father. He has less to do as Mrs Bates, and it’s mainly gurning in a bonnet.
Lawrence Boothman switches effortlessly between the farmer Robert Martin, proud owner of two cows, and the wonderfully ghastly Mr Elton. Johnny Panchaud keeps it low key as Mr Weston - somehow he makes himself shorter, which is some achievement. He grows a good few inches when he’s Frank Churchill, Mr Weston’s debonair and duplicitous son.
Much less successful is Star Penders, who is darling as the gauche and gullible Harriet Smith, delighted by Robert Martin’s cow chat. But her Jane Fairfax disappears.
Esme Bayley, in the title role, does much of the heavy lifting, both in dialogue and asides to the audience. James Boal’s Mr Knightley has little to do in the first half before making the huge leap between horror at Emma’s shoddy rudeness at the picnic and realising that she’s his one true love.
In an age when women are decentering men, the happy ending of a wedding and, inexplicably for regency Surrey, a ceilidh, makes this as much of a period piece as the bonnets and breeches.
Emma is part of this year’s Bard in the Botanics season at Glasgow Botanic Gardens and performs until 01 August 2026. For further details, go to the company’s website.
Photo by Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.
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