Rose Theatre Kingston

Pride and Prejudice will always be the most famous Jane Austen novel, but not only does Emma snap at its heels, it seems far more suited to modern updates – this year alone has given UK theatre the West End musical version of classic ‘90s adaptation Clueless, a more period accurate Emma in Bath, and this: a rip roaring modern update from rising star Ava Pickett. I suspect the issue is that while Pride and Prejudice is largely beloved because of how bafflingly complicated the love lives of the rural upper classes were in Regency England, then Emma goes the other way. It concerns Emma Woodhouse, a bright, well meaning if somewhat deluded young woman who decides she’d do a really great job of project managing the love lives of her friends and family – and then proceeds to screw everything up spectacularly. We can all relate to that! Directed by Christopher Haydon as a full throttle, pop song-bedaubed near-farce, Pickett very enjoyably leans into the idea of Emma as a fuck up. The time is around now, and the place is Essex – or rather it is after a brief introductory sequence set at the University of Oxford, where Emma has just failed her degree. With a year to go before she can resit, she limps home to the hometown she never wanted to return to, using her sister Isabella’s imminent wedding as cover. Unfortunately her embarrassment at her own failure becomes exacerbated by her wheeler dealer dad Mr Woodhouse (Nigel Lindsay) persuading the local newspaper to run a story about...

The Rose Theatre Kingston continues its noble tradition of programming Christmas shows based on the same stories as popular pantomimes, during pantomime season, except the show is definitely definitely not a pantomime, with a fresh spin on Cinderella from top playwright Chris Bush, co-written with the lesser-known Roni Neale. In it, 16-year-old Ella is spending Christmas at her dad’s house: chafing at her obnoxious step-family, she wishes she could be spirited away. Her prayers are seemingly answered as she’s transported to an idyllic fantasy kingdom – but is all as it seems? Bush did the Rose’s last Christmas show, a spin on Robin Hood with a deligtfully unsubtle anti-capitalist streak – imagine a bit of edge to this one too. 

Michael Sheen recently put his screen career on hold in order to lead and launch the new Welsh National Theatre. But fear not! The immuntable law of theatre physics that states everything good will end up in London at some point anyway continues to hold true as the Welsh National Theatre’s inaugural production heads to the Rose Kingston after three engagement in the motherland. Our Town is, of course, the revered metatheatrical drama by Thorton Wilder, which arrestingly details life and death in the small American town of Grover’s Corners, a strange and sometimes cosmic journey that goes from wilfully banal to chillingly otherworldly. Heading an all-Welsh cast, Sheen will play the show’s Stage Manager, our guide and occasional particpant in the strangeness that follows. The play is directed by Francesca Goodridge, with the great Russell T Davies as creative associate (what if anything this means we’re unsure but he’ll probably do something fun).