Script: Sam Kinchin-Smith
However tempting it may be to write a letter of complaint to one of the illustrious newspapers, the Radio Times or, as here to the London Review of Books (LRB), correspondents should beware that they may not only create a cultural storm but later find themselves incorporated into a literary event. The LRB has joined forces with the City of London Sinfonia and writer Sam Kinchin-Smith to celebrate 30 years since the publication of Terry Castle’s essay ‘Sister-Sister’, run under the headline ‘Is Jane Austen Gay?’, provoking a storm of angry letter writing played out in its columns in succeeding issues. Held at the Actors’ Church in Covent Garden, this event of the same name pieces together some of Jane and Cassandra Austen’s letters, extracts from Jane’s novels, along with Castle’s essay and favourite music of the Austen sisters in an enjoyably provoking Letters Live-style event.
Kinchin-Smith draws the event together using Castle’s original essay, extracts of which are read energetically by actors Claudie Blakely and Jemima Rooper throughout. In a sense, Was Jane Austen Gay? is primarily an academic exercise taken directly from the article and the sources that Castle quotes, including the Austen family as well as other experts in eighteenth and nineteenth-century literature. Through it, the audience is given a sense of Jane Austen’s biography, analysis of the letters sent between the sisters containing as much triviality as declarations of love and how this informed the novels, with excerpts from Northanger Abbey and Emma forming part of Castle’s argument.
But this is more than an academic lecture, and Kinchin-Smith contextualises the essay with reader responses to Castle’s printed text, which wryly bookend this 75-minute event, taking an almost Austen-like pleasure in the silliness that the essay provoked and the scandalous title which Castle herself was entirely innocent of. As complaints escalate later in the show, the editor’s sarcastic response to one annoyed letter causes even greater consternation in the next, until no one is very interested in the substance of Castle’s argument, instead the hoity back-and-forth its publication creates.
Kinchin-Smith, however, spends the majority of the piece fleshing out the true personality of Austen and her sister, reflections of other family members on their respective popularity and incorporating the music that they enjoyed and drew from. Thomas Arne (Overture from Artaxerxes), Miss Mellish (My Phillida, Adieu Love) and George Kiallmark (Variations on Robin Adair) are interspersed through the reading and performed by The City of London Sinfonia(Ruth Funnell on violin, James McVinnie on piano and Rebecca Knight on cello), with soaring work from soprano Anna Dennis whose voice is clear and strong, perfectly pitched in the Actors’ Church.
The approach is extremely successful, although without the programme essay (where the music pieces are not listed in the order of performance), it will be difficult for audience members to understand the significance of the music choices to the Austens, and some introduction within the show itself may be helpful. Ultimately, questioning Austen’s sexuality will surely evoke equally fervent opinions as it did 30 years ago, but this Ideas in Concert performance is a smart way to rekindle a literary storm.
Reviewed on 1 February 2026
