The Watsons
★★★★☆ Intriguing
Church Hill Theatre: Wed 28 – Sat 31 May 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
The Watsons, from Edinburgh People’s Theatre at the Church Hill, is an attractive production of a clever (if distinctly odd) literary adaptation.
Laura Wade’s 2018 play takes as its starting point an unfinished novel by Jane Austen. Emma Watson, who has been in the care of an aunt, returns to her family home. Lacking much in the way of prospects, Emma and her sisters need to find a suitable marriage – will it be to the handsome cad, the peculiar aristocrat, or the earnest parson?
The Watson’s cast aghast. Pic: Graham Bell
It is impossible to discuss the play without heading into spoiler territory. Suffice it to say that it soon veers off into decidedly meta-theatrical areas, as the characters stray from what is intended and ‘Laura’, a figure representing the author, is forced to confront them, in a self-confessedly Pirandellian manner.
To find the play completely successful, you do need a high tolerance both for self-conscious fourth-wall breaking and for musings on what a difficult life a writer has. Certainly there are overlong philosophical discussions in a second half that threaten to try the patience.
consistently good fun
However, the play is consistently good fun as well as thought-provoking, and director Hilary Spiers has fashioned a production that has pace and energy. In order to present a believably recalcitrant set of characters who are determined to assert their independence, the actual cast have to be ironically extremely well drilled. This is exactly what Spiers has achieved, as the cast discharge a complicated affair with seeming ease.
Ellie Mary Duncan and Nathaniel Forsyth. Pic: Graham Bell
The exchanges between the original story’s central character Emma (Ellie Marie Duncan) and Laura (Ruth Finlay) are particularly impressive. Duncan’s journey from a somewhat stereotyped Regency character to someone asserting their individuality is very well done, while Finlay portrays a potentially tricky character with great skill.
The other characters are performed with a commendable lightness of touch. Sarah Stanton and Chloe Baines, as the remaining Watson sisters Elizabeth and Margaret, manage both the more buttoned-up elements and the comedy very well.
James Sutherland (their brother Robert) and Jacqueline Wheble (Mrs Robert) are an effective comedy double act. Fraser Mackenzie (the roguish Tom Musgrave) and Nathaniel Forsyth (the unprepossessing Lord Osborne) both give free rein to their characters’ comedy potential without overdoing it. The same can be said of Helen Hammond, who gives Lady Osborne both a suitably tyrannical aspect and an unexpected but thoroughly believable human side.
pleasing restraint
Ray Pattie’s pious clergyman Mr Howard has a pleasing restraint, while Ellen McFadzen is very good indeed as his young nephew Charles. Pat Johnson, as the Watsons’ servant Nanny, inhabits the character completely, whether suddenly philosophising or sitting apparently doing nothing.
There’s something suspicious about that maid… but will characters confront her? Pic: Graham Bell
Lynn Cameron and Kevin Edie turn up convincingly in a variety of roles, sometimes when you least expect them to.
It is this constant ability to surprise that makes the production enjoyable. It does take a little while to warm up; the first few scenes, which lull the audience into a false sense of security by coming across as a conventional period drama, are a shade too diffidently played, with the odd problem of audibility. Things soon pick up, however.
clever combination
Richard Spiers and Paul Wilson’s set, a clever combination of the sturdy and the apparently less well defined, is thoroughly appropriate for the play. Gordon Hughes’s lighting is atmospheric and Richard Spiers’s sound is crisp.
In the end, the play itself may be as much a curiosity as a successful theatrical endeavour. It is always interesting, however, and performed here with skill and gusto.
Running time: Two hours and 15 minutes (including one interval).
Church Hill Theatre, 30 Morningside Rd, EH10 4DR
Wednesday 28 – Saturday 31 May 2025
Wed-Fri at 7.30 pm; Sat at 2.30 pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
EPT links:
Website: ept.org.uk
Facebook: @EdinburghPeoplesTheatre
Instagram: @epeoplestheatre
X (Twitter): @epeoplestheatre
TikTok: @epeoplestheatre
The Rev. Howard is about to have his hands full. . Pic: Graham Bell
ENDS
