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:

Anne Morley-Priestman - 18 September 2012

One reason why the novels of Jane Austen lend themselves so comfortably to dramatisation is that Austen wrote dialogue which just begs to be spoken aloud. The verbal exchanges offer characterisation as well as forwarding the plot, so using as many of them as possible makes a great deal of sense for the adapter.

In the case of Mansfield Park, this task now falls to Tim Luscombe, who has already made stage versions of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Mansfield Park is perhaps the least popular of Austen’s books, but this adaptation contrives to make its heroine Fanny Price into something more than a hard-done-by pattern of perfection and to give the same sense of more than a mere two dimensions to Edmund Bertram, the cousin on whom her shy attentions are fixed.

Director Colin Blumenau and designer Kit Surrey ensure that the action is fast-moving. The setting is coolly Regency – grey drapes printed with engravings of town, co...

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