Fascination and deception come naturally to the beautiful, widowed Lady Susan who manages, “without the charm of youth,” to captivate every man who comes within her orbit.
Bella Union Theatre Company introduces Bay Area audiences to a little-known work of a beloved author with their world-premiere adaptation of Jane Austen’s Lady Susan. One of Jane Austen’s earliest works, Lady Susan brings to life one of the most deliciously “bad” characters of Austen’s entire canon. In Christine U’Ren’s clever adaptation, the young Jane Austen is featured as an onstage character, and the audience watches as the author’s ideas take shape. Directed by Gina Baleria, Bella Union’s production of Lady Susan previews on July 2, opens on July 3, and runs Thursdays – Sundays through July 26, 2009 at the historic Berkeley City Club.
About the Novel
Jane Austen most likely wrote Lady Susan in the early 1790s, when she was younger than 20. This short work was composed in the epistolary style (i.e., in the form of letters written between the characters) except for the final chapter, when the narrator steps in and finishes the story.
Letter novels were highly popular in the late eighteenth century, especially with one of Austen's favorite authors, Samuel Richardson. Lady Susan may also have been influenced by a sensational French letter-novel of 1782, Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Austen herself wrote many of her early works, such as Love and Freindship and First Impressions (later retitled Pride and Prejudice), in the epistolary style. Although she later found her own voice in omniscent narration, many of her major novels contain letters that are important and character-revealing features of the story (e.g., Mr. Darcy's written plea to Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Captain Wentworth's note to Anne Eliot in Persuasion, and the missives Mary Crawford sends to Fanny Price in Mansfield Park). Composing letters in the voices of her characters certainly contributed to Austen's understanding of human nature, and her development of the novel.
For dramatic purposes, a letter-novel is wonderful material to start from, as the characters' own words are immediately accessible. The challenge is to create direct interactions between the actors.
About the Script
Bella Union's production of Lady Susan began with an early draft of the script written by company member Christine U'Ren in 2006. Other members initially felt that the script depended too much on monologues derived directly from the novel. As one member wrote, "As an actor I'm always worried about letter sequences." Modern audiences might read blogs at home, but at the theater they prefer to see a little more movement.
Later versions of the script heightened the interactions between the characters and the onstage version of their creator, Jane Austen. The play was further developed with two staged readings, the first produced by Eastenders Repertory Company in October 2007 (directed by Susan E. Evans), which introduced the script to a live audience. As a result of the Eastenders reading, Bella Union was invited to perform at a special event sponsored by the Jane Austen Society of North America, NorCal chapter, in April 2008. Director Gina Baleria added much more movement to that production than is typical for a staged reading, showing how lively the script could be. At that point, we at Bella Union knew we had a show that could be produced to wonderful effect.
One important feature of the original novel remains, however: look for the letter as it is passed from character to character throughout the show.