Last night I went to see Emma at Dunham Massey, luckily the rain held off and we had a nice picnic so it was great. The production itself was very enjoyable, there was only five actors playing all the parts and they used pictures to represent other characters in places which sounds bizarre but actually was well done.
The parts broke down like this:
Girl 1 - Emma
Girl 2 - Harriet Smith & Jane Fairfax
Girl 3 - Mrs Weston, Miss Bates, Mrs Elton & Isabella
Bloke 1 - Knightley, Mr Weston, Mrs Bates
Bloke 2 - Frank Churchill, Mr Elton & Mr Woodhouse
Here's the whole cast, Emma, Mrs Elton, Mr Woodhouse, Mr Weston and Jane Fairfax with pictures representing Mr Elton and Mrs Weston. This was Emma's dinner party for the Eltons.
They framed the play with a Georgian period art class with the cast all staying in character from when the audience arrived until they left (I'm not sure I'm explaining this very well but it was really amusing).
Bloke 1 is the multi-coloured waistcoat, Bloke 2 is the red waistcoat. This was part of the beginning "art class" bit.
They used frames to introduce the characters, here Emma and Mr Woodhouse.
And this is Mr Knightley arriving.
Emma had a very expressive voice and given that the whole play depended on this is was just as well! Harriet was very funny, silly and giggly more so than I've seen her portrayed before, it was entertaining especially when she was following Mr Elton about the stage. Girl 3 who had the most parts did quite well on differentiating them except I felt she over-exaggerated Miss Bates a bit, though that is always a fine line.
The two blokes did really well, both funny and bantering between them during the art class bits and then both did a range of characters, changing jackets and hats, even a dodgy wig. I never usually fancy Frank Churchill (even when played by Ewan McGregor!) or Mr Elton, being much more a Mr Knightley girl, however bloke 2 (tall and thin with floppy hair ;) ) was much more my type than bloke 1. Bloke 1, whilst he was good at all the characters he did, I found his Knightley a bit brash and not charming enough, for my taste anyway. He did however deliver the "If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more" line very well, I did swoon a little :)
Frank Churchill and Emma.
Emma and Mr Knightley.
All in all it was a very enjoyable production!