The Watsons

by Laura Wade, Jane Austen

What happens when the writer loses the plot?

Emma Watson is nineteen and new in town. She's been cut off by her rich aunt and dumped back in the family home. Emma and her sisters must marry, fast. If not, they face poverty, spinsterhood, or worse: an eternity with their boorish brother and his awful wife.

Luckily there are plenty of potential suitors to dance with, from flirtatious Tom Musgrave to castle-owning Lord Osborne, who's as awkward as he is rich.

So far so familiar. But there's a problem: Jane Austen didn't finish the story. Who will write Emma's happy ending now?

Based on her incomplete novel, this sparklingly witty play looks under the bonnet of Jane Austen and asks: what can characters do when their author abandons them?

Genres: Plays, Fiction, Drama

112 pages, Paperback

First published November 3, 2018

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Janeite purists may balk at Wade's audacious dramatization of Austen's infamously unfinished fragment, especially with multiple F-bombs and a lesbian subplot, but I found the whole thing entirely delightful, full of LOL moments, with yet a wholehearted embrace of what makes Austen Austen. The universally rapturous reviews concur.

The meta elements are just right (including the nod to Pirandello), and I would LOVE to see this staged - although the large cast and set/costume budget alone make that highly unlikely. Were I still directing (and had an unlimited budget!), I'd love to give it a shot.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
https://variety.com/2019/legit/review...
https://www.timeout.com/london/theatr...
https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/th...

[Nadja · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Jane Austen and that's why I was intrigued to read a play about her unfinished story The Watsons. I've read the Watsons many years ago and can't say how accurate the beginning of the play is but it felt quite coherent from the language and atmosphere. I like that Laura Wade didn't simply finish the story one way but added a twist to it. I don't agree with all character's choices (some seemed quite far-fetched) but I liked the play as a whole and would I live in London, I'd go to see a performance for sure (Menier Chocolate Factory, Sept 20th to Nov. 16th 2019).

N.E.W.T.s 2019: Divination A: Read a white book.

[Kirk · Rating 5 out of 5]

After a "normal" beginning, this one gets quite wild. Anyone who has written or attempted fan fiction might appreciate characters running amuck(Bugs Bunny had Duck-amuck).

[Jai · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging window into Austen’s role in the contemporary era! Despite being plagued by the inconsistent characterisation of the titular family, specifically, Emma.

[val · Rating 3 out of 5]

Currently thinking many thoughts.

There are so many themes in this. So, so many themes, and there was unfortunately not enough time to properly delve into all of them.

Laura Wade's The Watsons starts out as any other Jane Austen novel starts out; with a dizzying cast of characters, trademark wit, a long-suffering eldest sister, and a handful of love interests. It's only until the middle of the first act that things start falling apart at the seams, and it becomes a bit more of a philosophical debate about government, autonomy, and writing as a whole. If anything, Wade's play is more a love letter to the craft of writing than anything. It's raw, it's good, and it's enthralling, but it was a bit hard to follow in places.

The emotional climax was charged and cast a little too quickly for my liking; I felt underwhelmed by the ending and felt like I needed a little more from it. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great, either. I liked it, though. 3.5 stars.

[Abigail Bok · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review contains spoilers.
And so ends (unless I can get my hands on the other three) my journey through the completions of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel The Watsons. This play provided a suitably meta ending to my project because it is—at least on the surface—a play about a writer writing a completion of The Watsons.

It begins more or less with the story and words of the fragment: Elizabeth Watson drives her sister Emma in to town to attend an assembly; Emma dances with young Charles Blake (here called Howard), drawing the interest of the Osborne set; Robert and Mary Watson come to visit, bringing another Watson sister, Margaret. But then stuff starts to happen.

Emma Watson is on the brink of accepting Lord Osborne’s proposal when someone dressed as a servant intervenes and tries to stop her. The “servant” (who actually thinks she is the master) turns our to be Laura Wade the author, bent on finishing the story. The characters are horrified to learn they are characters, but soon demand their own lives according to their own choices.

Much of the humor is predictable but it all goes by so quickly that I didn’t really mind. I tried to stage it in my mind as I was reading and think it would make a very effective stage production. It tries to say profound things about the creative process and doesn’t entirely succeed, but I don’t think that would be noticed in the theater. I quite enjoyed the conceit.

[Maite Mateos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recuperar una obra de Jane Austen inacabada y plantear un final para la historia de Emma Watson, un personaje que muchos han comparado con la Elizabeth Bennet de «Orgullo y prejuicio», no debe haber sido nada fácil, ni siquiera para una dramaturga tan reconocida en el mundo del teatro como la inglesa Laura Wade, que nos ofrece una lectura interesante de un clásico en el que se proyecta ella misma para hablar de sus inseguridades como creadora, de su necesidad de ser aplaudida, al mismo tiempo que dialoga con los personajes de Jean Austen, para recrearlos y darles una nueva oportunidad y con ella, la libertad, la autodeterminación de la contemporaneidad, a modo de experimentación.
Sorpresas y situaciones divertidas no faltan, como tampoco la reflexión en torno a la ficción y la realidad.
La obra, que toda la crítica coincide en describir como inteligente, sorprendente, brillante y magnética, se representó por primera vez en el 2018, en el Chichester Festival Theatre de Inglaterra.

Sigue mis reseñas en:
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[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

My friend Scott gifted me THE WATSONS, a play by Laura Wade, after we watched THE RIOT CLUB, a movie based on her play POSH. Based on an unfinished novel by Jane Austin, playwright Laura Wade inserts herself as author into the narrative, playfully and self-reflexively exploring how authors control narrative, the need to write, and the differences between writing a novel and a play. It begins well, with the expected comedy of manners, and then, breaks down as the characters are left by Jane Austin to flounder without a proper conclusion. In the second act, we truly explore the nature of creative energy, and although I do think Wade cops out a bit when the playwright takes a nap (leaving the characters to define their own fate) and a bit of forced philosophical exploration, THE WATSONS is a very funny exploration of the genesis of stories and a future for these characters without the novelist's opinion about how best to resolve their pathways forward. Oh, and I didn't read the "kindle" version, as this review suggests, but the paperback. I'd enjoy seeing this produced.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delirious good fun.

[Phoebe Sernaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came round to it in the end. Wasn't sure if I was liking it at Act 1, but I enjoyed Act 2 a lot.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this - it's rather slight and goes proper nuts towards the end but I love the genuinely amusing look at being a writer and being a character.

[Craig Werner]

Pirandello meet Jane Austen. A nice idea carried through well. Love to see it on stage.

[Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

You gotta read this for yourself. Don’t read reviews. You have to go in blind.

[Sugarplum books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice plot twist

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy entretenido. La verdad que me ha gustado mucho el concepto de personaje-persona.

A pesar de todo, me hubiese gustado que Emma se casase con Lord Osborne, pero eso solo es mi opinión...

[Mollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

That was a WEIRD play, but I strangely liked it...
I was caught off guard by the Obi-Wan Star Wars reference. Beats Colder Than Here for sure!

[kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

rating: 3 stars
— read for school