Emma

Today we went over to Theatre in the Round to see their production of Emma, the novel by Jane Austen as adapted by Sandra Fenichel Asher.  My take: I do not like the third wall Jane interacting with her play.  But perhaps that's because it was hard to hear her over the music and fan in the theater.  No...on contemplation I just didn't like it.  I acknowledge it was necessary to keep the play tight, although the movie did it in an hour and twenty minutes and I don't remember a faux narrator there.  Although who knows, per the image I've attached, there's certainly been more than one Emma (and more than one Mr. Knightley), so perhaps one or more of them had a Jane Austen narrator.

Otherwise, the play is an excellent adaptation.  Really well done to fit in the timeframe of a play.  There was a full house and the audience laughed frequently, and groaned when Emma was mean to Mrs. Bates before Knightley calls her out on it.  And although there are fanfic Emma/Knightley spankings, you won't get me to link to them here.  You'll just have to find them yourself.  Good acting.  The mannerisms helped drive the play beyond the words.

Eryn hates Jane Austen (really, she's related to me?  I backed a Jane Austen game on Kickstarter - Marrying Mr. Darcy which Klund played with the designer at Gameholecon).  But we talked about it in a historical perspective and how much influence there is between Austen and Shakespeare in the Comedy of Manners style, such as Much Ado About Nothing.