Northanger Abbey

Published Monday 10 September 2007 at 10:10 by Lesley Bates

Northanger Abbey is early, girlie Jane Austen with a teenage heroine hooked on Gothic romance and an imagination in overdrive.

First performed at York Theatre Royal with a large cast of professional and amateur performers, director Christopher Luscombe has reworked his own adaptation of Austen’s novel for just eight actors.

At times, the Playhouse stage looks under-populated, but Luscombe keeps the action tripping along, weaving strands of Mrs Radcliffe’s purplest prose alongside the social whirl of Georgian Bath and Catherine’s advance towards matrimony.

It’s a shame that the piece runs out of steam ending abruptly in reconciliation and marriage, but Austen can take the blame for that.

Elsewhere, his innovative staging owes a huge debt to Matthew Bugg, whose music and clever choreography are crucial, giving the production the precision of a measured dance.

Equally key is Hansjorg Schmidt’s lighting, casting menacing shadows across Colin Falconer’s deceptively simple set of doors and vaulted Gothic arches.

Jenni Maitland’s Catherine is breathless, eager and trusting, oblivious to the wiles of others.

Her wide-eyed naivety contrasts with the willowy grace of Helen Bradbury’s gravely earnest Eleanor and Emma Hamilton’s fickle, manipulative Isabella.

Their beaux, played by Gregory Finnegan, Ben Righton and Dominic Gerrard, are also nicely differentiated with Righton turning in a fine double as sincere James Morland and rakish Captain Tilney.

Christine Cox is delightfully vague as Mrs Allen, more concerned with the quality of muslin than affairs of the heart, and Terry Taplin makes his mark as gold-digging General Tilney.