The Watsons

“Laura Wade triumphs spinning Jane Austen into major theatrical gold.” - Variety

“Excellent. Jane Austen has never been quite so much fun.” - The Times  

Directed by Samuel West, The Watsons played to critical acclaim at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2018, and completes its run at the Menier this Saturday, 16 November.

Nineteen and new in town, Emma Watson’s been cut off by her wealthy aunt. She needs to marry, and fast, or be faced with a life of poverty and spinsterhood stuck in her humdrum family home. Luckily, she has plenty of prospective suitors asking to dance, from dashing socialite Tom Musgrave to the stinking rich, socially awkward Lord Osborne. Which partner to pick?

So far, so familiar, but that’s when Jane Austen stopped writing. Two hundred years on, her forgotten heroine’s happy ending still hangs in the balance. Picking up an unfinished novel, Olivier Award-winner Laura Wade’s ‘ingenious and triumphant’ (Evening Standard) new comedy pops the bonnet on Jane Austen’s worldand asks: what happens when a writer loses the plot and fictional characters take control of their tale?