A frantic and melodramatic ride through Austen
Edinburgh Rep Company is following an ambitious plan. A play every month, along with staging six of these at the Edinburgh Fringe this year. An exhaustive plan such as this in making theatre is going to come with its trials and tribulations, but rest assured that this company has produced a well crafted and enjoyable adaptation of early Austen.
The piece is spearheaded by Natalie Beller, bringing both a young and older version of Laura to life. They are ably helped by a rotating cast of characters, played by Pedro Branco, Kathryn Marper, Helen Bunker, Kyle Paton and Beth Eltringham. This is a cast that fully bought into the melodrama and franticness of the piece. They work together well and deliver some nice moments throughout the piece. They also have full conviction in what they are tasked with doing, bringing a joyful over-the-top energy to each scene.
The comedy of the piece is a welcome addition. While we are sometimes faced with adaptations that take themselves a little too seriously, Love and Freindship [sic], fully embraces the ridiculousness and juvenility of Austen’s novella. Whether we are faced with a ridiculous circumstance or another opportunity to faint or scream, these moments are really where the piece succeeds.
Oliver Giggins leads the piece as both adaptor and director. His knowledge of the text is evident and there is a clear vision of what he wanted from this adaptation. It never slows down, constantly running through the events that lead us to an anticlimactic yet still slightly climactic finale. Giggins manages to build a fast paced piece that, for the most part, keeps the audience engaged.
However, it is in that pacey storytelling that the work falters slightly. The scenes are consistently interrupted by monologues, bringing the story to its next stage, trying to put as much as the source text onto the stage as possible. This slightly takes the audience out of the story, and breaks up the flow of the piece at times. The use of monologue is also slightly confused, being delivered half the time on the stage and the other half through recordings. A more consistent approach to this may have helped to have less effect on the pacing and engagement of the story.
That being said, this is an enjoyable hour of theatre. It knows what it aims to do and for the most part delivers. With a slot in the Free Fringe on the horizon, this would be an enjoyable piece for Austen fans to see during August.
Jane Austen’s Love and Freindship [sic] was performed at St. Augustine’s Church on the 28th June 2026, and is moving to perform at CC Blooms with PBH Free Fringe, from 8th to 14th August 2026.