Emma the Eponym

Emma is the heroine of Jane Austen's novel, Emma.  To tell the truth, I have never liked the novel much, and I have never liked Emma much either.  She is a spoiled, cocky young woman with a vaunted opinion of herself, who doesn't hesitate to tell other people how to live their lives. 

I was very like the first half of that sentence, but never followed through with the second half. I was content to feel superior without the need to convert others to my point of view. So, Emma's need to keep moving people around like chessmen is not a  positive trait in my point of view. At the end of the novel, Emma is brought into line by the realization that she finally has gone too far with disregarding others' feelings and rights. Good. Serves her right. I guess it was worth writing a novel about, since most people seem to love the book. I just don't.

Last night at the Old Globe, I saw "Emma, the Musical." It was a preview night and I love preview nights. You don't have to stay up so late. A friend was kind enough to let me out near the theater entrance and pick me up the same...so I could go. Frankly, I loved the production. Emma was a very good singer and actress. Mr Knightly was all that could be hoped for as friend and lover and he had a wonderful voice. The set was entrancing (a huge green maze of hedges raking up towards the back of the stage, from which all persons and props made their entrances and exits) and the music nice.  Good that the composer was able to use so much of the original dialog, and to rhythm and rhyme it all so enchantingly.

Now for some negatives.  I did not like Miss Bates. Since this is not a real review I don't have to mention actors' names. Miss Bates came out too vulgar and even blowsy for my taste. As an old maid, Miss Bates is indeed an object of fun, but the tragedy of her situation is pointed up in the novel  by the fact that she is a sweet loving lady  driven daffy  by her situation in life.  I liked "Mother" and found her sympathetic ;).  I was sorry that she disappeared from the action early on, but later read in the program that her actress had to come on then as Mrs. Elton. Mrs. Elton, an awful somebody, did not have enough scope to strut her stuff and was mostly made known to us by the references from others' talk.

The whole production seemed to lag in energy in the second half. I don't know just why, but I think it's because Frank Churchill comes on too late in the story to really count for much.  I think this is an Austen flaw, a rare one for her. Or maybe it's just me. There is a confusion there, almost as if she knew she had to augment her story a bit and added the Miss Fairfax/Frank Churchill duo to pad things out. I am open to criticism on this critical point.

Back to the good--for the first time, I rather liked Harriet Smith. She's another irritating character in the book, someone who does not seem to know her own mind at all. That's understandable because she is very young and inexperienced. Her place and attitude do serve to point up the fairly rigid caste levels  in that society.  However, in this production, the sweetness and sweet voice of Miss Smith were just right. Her love for Mr Robert Martin, which she finally comes to recognize and put ahead of  the judgments of Emma, is well projected in the first half of the play though she becomes a little strident towards the latter half. Mr Robert Martin was the perfect lovable rural buffoon, who will spend the rest of his life in happiness with his Harriet. One does wonder, though, how much of each other the two friends, Emma and Harriet, will see in the future? No matter, it was a very pleasant evening.  YAZZYBEL