Our review of 'Persuasion', now on at the Theatre Royal

Rarely have I seen such an adaptation of Austen’s work performed with such splendid serendipity – but it’s not just that, it’s the beguiling nature of the woman at the heart of Austen’s last novel before she died, Anne Elliot, whose transformation from a ‘persuaded’ girl forced to give up her true love to the steadfast, yet honest, modern mademoiselle who finally gets her man, which sets this apart as a modern classic at the Theatre Royal Windsor this week.

This is the most enthralling piece of theatre you will see this year.

Huge in scope, yet with a minimalist set which creates the rugged danger of England’s west coast seascape, there are nods, I think, here to Poldark, to Du Maurier – and eerily at times to Kate Bush and her much-acclaimed flip side on Hounds of Love, The Seventh Wave, namely the dream-like, half-awake songs Under the Ice and Waking the Witch – there’s a haunted quality.

The Bush technique is used well, with flashback moments resonated by off-stage murmurings in not-forgotten halls – memories of others’ persuasive arguments that Elliot’s man was not good enough for her.

Stunning and seductive, this will set your pulse racing.

There is nothing like this around on the stage right now.

From the producers of 2017’s electric wartime drama Gabriel this a new version of Austen’s final novel, adapted for the stage by acclaimed playwright Stephanie Dale and directed by Theatre6’s award-winning Kate McGregor is huge in heart and soul, genuine in warmth and compassion and faithful to its author.

Anne Elliot was young and in love. Engaged to the dashing, but poor naval officer, Commander Wentworth, her ambitious family tore them apart. Years later, the tables have turned and a chance encounter may well lead Anne towards the true love she has yearned for – or a life forever alone.

Filled with music, drama, laughter and romance from a fine cast of actors and musicians this is how I’ve always felt Austen should be seen.

Persuasion will send you home with a lust for life.

The societal humour in this piece is as good as it gets with some excellent one-liners (no spoilers here).

This is a six-hander with the cast playing multiple characters, apart from the sublimely charismatic Ceri-Lynn Cissone as Elliot and Jason Ryall as both the gorgeous Wentworth and the calculating and manipulative challenger for her affections, Mr Elliot.

Each actor is also a musician and the score by Maria Haik Escudero is a key ingredient in the play’s structure as clarinet, violin, piano and flute are played live by the cast to highlight and influence the mood changes.

Cissone plays our heroine Anne Elliot with an admiring candour, vulnerable, yet passionate and strong, her ambitions never wavering, adaptable, but with a keen sense of longing. Her cadence and diction, her consummate verve all testament to her status as a rising star.

I urge you to remember the name.

Ryall’s execution of men at differing ends of the biological spectrum was fine-tuned and not a little reminiscent of some of those you may know in your offices – smart suits covering a much darker intent.

But in Matthew Atkins, Siobhan Gerrard, Indigo Griffiths and Lucinda Turner you have a quite wonderful quartet making up the ensemble with a special ingredient – magic.

Persuasion is a play about social pressures, particularly on women and the expectations of class, yet here it is brought to our table with the lightest of touches concealed in a velvet glove holding an incendiary device.

Incendiary, yes. The gasps from the audience at the denouement started half way through the kiss – which became a full-blown snog with all that real love and passion portray!

‘”What kind of woman are you looking for?”, Wentworth is asked. “One with a strong mind.”

The thin veneer of Georgian hypocrisy held no fear for Austen, her women were women, and, thank God, they always will be...

Persuasion, Theatre Royal Windsor, until Saturday, May 26. Box office: 01753 853888 or theatreroyalwindsor.co.uk