Why Jane Austen finds herself at home in modern Essex

As Jane Austen celebrates her 250th birthday, Ava Pickett has adapted Emma for the stage. She’s taken a radical approach. She talks to Sarah Crompton about why Austen is still the best portrayer of complex women, the challenges of comedy, the freedom of writing period drama and why the craft of women playwrights still isn’t recognised.

Chief critic Crompton and editor-in-chief Alex Wood host a weekly series on all things theatrical. News, views, frank exchanges and lists offer an unmissable guide to what’s happening on stage (and in film and on television) now, in the past and in future.

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