Theater Review | ‘The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged’

Ensemble Theatre Company’s end-of-year production, The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged, is an enthusiastic overview of Austen’s work, including novels, novellas, unfinished manuscripts, and juvenalia. The show features lovely aesthetic elements and fun performances surrounding a series of Austenian retellings that manifest memories of (albeit sophisticated) high-school book reports. There’s frivolity with costuming (every character across six novels has their own hat), swooning descriptions of Mr. Darcy, and eager elucidation of Austen’s place in the history of feminism. Written by the playwriting team of Jessica Bedford, Charlotte Northeast, Kathryn Macmillan, and Megan Winch (and directed by Robert Kelley), Complete Works is more Wikipedia rabbit hole than true drama.

Characters Charolette and Jessica (played by actors Alyssa Anne Austin and Kirsten Høj, respectively) are plucky young Austen fans attempting to perform a quasi-dramatic, quasi-narrative (somehow all improv?) consolidation of Austen’s work (90 minutes, no intermission), but their male lead booked a gig and hightailed it to New York. The character (and comedic foil) of Trevor (played by actor Kyle T. Hester) is a last-minute replacement whose main qualification for the role is having a pulse.

The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged is not a play designed to challenge the audience, but rather to express the joy surrounding the cult of Austen, which it does effectively. In some ways, the show mirrors Austen’s work: Not much is happening but low-to-moderate annoyance between the genders blossoms into greater understanding and mutual appreciation. The main conflict, for instance, a disagreement on what the “best” Austen novel is, is a useless point of contention. Despite this, the show maintains charm and a chipper disposition.

See The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged at the New Vic through December 21, with a special celebration show on December 16, Austen’s 250^th birthday. bit.ly/3YebCCX