Writer: Jane Austen
Adapter: Rebecca Vaughan
Director: Andrew Margerison
Dyad Productions in collaboration with the Old Town Hall, Hemel Hempstead, has, since 2009, built a reputation for adaptations of classics. Generally they are performed solo by Rebecca Vaughan and tour smallish venues with minimal props (Lady Susan a carpet, a chaise longue and a seat), though Rebecca Vaughan informed us that next year they’re doing a show with three people on stage. Vaughan writes in the programme of “the joy of paring down theatre” and it’s her skill in communicating with the audience in different characters that prompts venues to invite Dyad back.
The first production of Dyad was Austen’s Women and now the wheel has come full circle with this concentration on Lady Susan, the one completed Austen novel that nobody (including your reviewer) has read. Lady Susan is an epistolary novel and the fun lies partly in digging out the truth hidden below the polite sentiments and comparing one version of the truth with another. For that reason Vaughan preserves the letter format.
Lady Susan is a flirt with a purpose: a recently widowed woman in the late 18th century needed a rich man to marry. Unfortunately the man on whom Susan’s eye alights is Manwaring, a married man. Her suitor, Sir James Martin, is nothing compared to Mr. Manwaring, she affirms. Having outstayed her welcome in London, Lady Susan has to find some relative to stay with – and the lot falls on her brother-in-law Charles, much to the disgust of his wife Catherine. So now we can follow Susan’s machinations, including her interest in Catherine’s brother Reginald and constant sub-plots involving her less than co-operative daughter Frederica.
Vaughan characterises the various letter writers vividly, adding the odd note of fury or disgust to Austen’s words. When Susan is seeking accommodation, her letters ooze flattery, but Austen decided to aid her readers’ judgements by giving her frank exchanges with her London confidante Alicia: the whole stage seems to light up triumphantly as they plot her next scheme. Later on Alicia speaks for herself in a voice-over as Lady Susan reacts.
The other writers characterised by Vaughan are Catherine, her mother Lady De Courcey and Frederica. Lady De Courcey, with a stick and her voice an almost masculine rumble, defends the family honour, but the real treat is Catherine, in a state between fury and panic, until at the end the problem recedes. How? You’ll have to read the book. Finally she can spend Christmas with her mother.
Under Andrew Margerison’s direction and with aid of sound effects that drag us wittily from one character to another, Rebecca Vaughan shines a light on an obscure work by one of the most read of authors. Can we expect a run on the libraries of York maybe?
Reviewed on 18th September 2025
