Mansfield Park

Synopsis

When shy retiring Fanny Price comes to live with her aunt and uncle at Mansfield Park, she finds herself in a whirlwind of social activities - the latest card games, elaborate balls and private theatricals. While her uncle, Sir Thomas Betram is away for the summer, the rest of the household plan to stage the scandalous play, Lovers Vows. As they rehearsal progress, romance blossoms amongst the players.

Our Review:

20 November 2012

Mansfield Park is renowned for having one of Jane Austen’s least widely loved heroines. But I’ve always had a soft spot for Fanny Price myself, so it was with interest that I headed to the Oxford Playhouse to see the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds’ stage version of the piece.

Unfortunately, the adaptation suffers from a lot of the difficulties that often beset an attempt to transfer a long literary work to a very different medium. A lot of it just feels slightly clunky: there’s a lot of exposition and scene setting in the first half, and consequently it drags somewhat, despite the compressing of a huge amount of plot into a relatively short length of time. The pace of the second act is much better, though it’s still hard to engage with any of the characters on more than a superficial level.

There is plenty about the production that merits praise: the costumes are sumptuous, the set is simple but elegant and effective, and the frequent shifts of scene are handled skilfully a...

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