Winner of a show that’s not to be missed

REVIEW: Northanger Abbey – Commandery Gardens, Worcester (Thursday, July 16 to Sunday, July 19 and Thursday, July 23 to Sunday, July 26).

THE ghost of being force-fed Jane Austen for the potentially life-changing ‘o’ level exam back in that far-off summer of 1965 has finally been laid to rest.

And for that I must thank director and script writer Paul Milton, who has exorcised what was once a demon perched on the shoulders of a 15-year-old adolescent schoolboy from long ago bent on gaining a pass in one of the only subjects at which he was proficient.

Yes indeed, Paul Milton is the man with the Midas touch. But this stupendously entertaining reimagining of Jane Austen’s first foray with the quill would not be the start-to-finish fabulous entertainment in the delightful Commandery Gardens were it not for the team of brilliantly talented actors he has assembled for the Worcester Rep’s annual summer outing in the July evening sunshine.

The fact is that the woman who virtually brought the English novel into being probably needs a bit of a riding boot up the bustle, and Milton has certainly done that. Humour abounds in this take on what is probably not the best known of the author’s works, and this is peppered with some wonderfully strident songs, courtesy of musical director Alex-Kraus-Williams.

Nevertheless, it takes guts, not to say a leap in the dark to choose – for the second year running – an Austen work, last year’s offering being Sense and Sensibility, a play that also proved to be a showcase for Milton’s skills with making a classic blissfully palatable for a modern audience.

Northanger Abbey pokes fun at the popularity of Gothic horror stories, the Regency period’s best-known exponent being a certain Mrs Ann Radcliffe. And to say that Catherine Morland (Charlie Fraser-Swarbrick) is obsessed with the genre gets nowhere near. Ms Fraser-Swarbrick is endlessly superb, setting a frantic pace right from the start.

The story’s pendulum swings from Bath to Northanger Abbey, and it’s not long before a couple of desperately handsome men appear on the scene before you can say ‘Mr Darcy’s just fallen into a pond’.

Nate Harter epitomises the suitor one would expect, this being Henry Tilney, a floppy-haired fop with a voice smoother than vintage port – a far cry from his other role as the caddish John Thorpe, a mountebank and coxcomb probably bound eventually for the Tyburn gallows if I’m not mistaken.

George Ormerod is a close second in the chiselled features stakes, but he really comes into his own as General Tilney as he turns absurdity and pomposity into an art form. I couldn’t wait for him to stride into view, puffed up like an irritable bullfrog.

Unlike today, manners were once everything to the upper middle classes, and Alexandra Whitworth personifies the matronly, steady hand on the tiller that would have been very familiar to Jane Austen. Her roles as Mrs Morland and Isabella Thorpe serve to dilute the hyperactive nature of the horror-struck Catherine, bringing her down to earth when need be.

And more dashed good sense is offered by Julia Bentley (Mrs Allen, Eleanor Tilney) both women who in the late 18^th century were often thankfully on hand to revive those gels smitten with attacks of the vapours.

Northanger Abbey is a triumph in more ways than one. Somehow, Worcester Theatres has turned a classic story that is not necessarily known to many people, into a huge hit that has clearly caught the public’s imagination.

And the proof was there for all to see on this summery second night of the run… a packed audience that stretched from the stage to the gravel path leading up to the back door of the Commandery Great Hall.

So. Have you got your ticket yet? If not, you'd better get a move on, because this show is an absolute winner.