The interactive play JANE AUSTEN will be presented for one night only, April 11, 2006, at the Players’ Club in New York City.

In the tradition of amateur theatricals held during her childhood at Steventon rectory, Jane Austen has prepared an entertainment for her family and friends, in which her siblings are cast as fellow performers. But her family plays a trick on her, and she must rise to the requirements of an unrehearsed solo performance.

In this interactive production, members of the audience are invited to play Jane’s family - and merriment ensues.

Tickets are $40 for Players’ Club members and $50 for non-members. The company also is holding free open rehearsal performances, but a reservation is required. See the link above for details.

The co-director, Amy Stoller, reported on the AUSTEN-L mailing list that they hope to tour the play to other cities. We will try to keep track and report any other performances as they are listed.

The Ohio Light Opera of the College of Wooster in Ohio will present a musical stage version of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE in July and August, 2006. From the company’s Web site:

What makes this production unique is that it exists in three worlds: Jane Austen’s world; the world of Pride and Prejudice, where the characters live out their story; and the combination of these two worlds, as Jane Austen writes the story and interacts and is inspired by her characters. However, the musical is not a biography of Jane Austen. It is a story of Pride and Prejudice. It is a story of live: the love an author has for her characters and the love the characters have for one another. The character of Jane Austen also works as a transition device. In the span of a sentence, a year can pass, a location can change, or a new character can be introduced.

As she puts ink to paper, Jane Austen narrates her tale of Pride and Prejudice. She introduces Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, an upper-class couple in rural England and their five eligible daughters. Mrs. Bennet is determined to marry them off, but the girls have no dowry. Jane solves the Bennets’ dilemma by bringing Mr. Bingley, a wealthy young man, to the nearby estate of Netherfield Park. Mr. Bingley is enamored with the Bennets’ eldest daughter, Jane, and is hopeful of soon seeing her happily married. As the story unfolds, we meet the snobby Mr. Darcy and the charming officer, Mr. Wickham.

The journey to the premiere of Pride and Prejudice has been one of love. The authors have tried to stay faithful to Jane Austen’s story and words while translating it into an American genra of musical theatre. “Our hope is that the audience will leave the theatre, not only having enjoyed an evening of entertainment, but also inspired to go out and read the novel and discover for themselves the genius of Jane Austen.” What a great way to introduce youngsters to one of the great classics.

Tickets are $39 for adults and $15 for students, and are available online. If any of our readers gets to see it, please send us your review.

Two recent novels have allusions to Jane Austen that we thought were interesting enough to bring to our readers’ attention.

In the book The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow, excerpted at USAToday.com, the narrator is a book, and the premise indicates that books are sentient beings; interesting enough, and check this out:

The precise metaphysical procedures by which a book goes about writing another book need not concern us here. Suffice it to say that our human scribes remain entirely ignorant of their possession by bibliographic forces; the agent in question never doubts that his authorship is authentic. A bit of literary history may clarify matters. Unlike Charles Dickens’s other novels, Little Dorrit was in fact written by The Færie Queene. It is fortunate that Jane Austen’s reputation does not rest on Northanger Abbey, for the author of that admirable satire was Paradise Regained in a frivolous mood. The twentieth century offers abundant examples, from The Pilgrim’s Progress cranking out Atlas Shrugged, to Les Misérables composing The Jungle, to The Memoirs of Casanova penning Portnoy’s Complaint.

We really are not sure what to make of that.

Alert Janeite Diane wrote to tell us that Kathleen Gilles Seidel’s latest novel, A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity, begins with a quotation from Jane Austen (but we don’t know which one) and the title, of course, is taken from Emma:

Mrs. Bates, the widow of a former vicar of Highbury, was a very old lady, almost past every thing but tea and quadrille. She lived with her single daughter in a very small way, and was considered with all the regard and respect which a harmless old lady, under such untoward circumstances, can excite. Her daughter enjoyed a most uncommon degree of popularity for a woman neither young, handsome, rich, nor married.

More information about the book, and an excerpt from the first chapter, is available at Ms. Seidel’s Web site.

We approached By A Lady with some anticipation, being fond of a time travel story and looking forward to a fun romp through Georgian Bath with Jane Austen on hand to provide snarky commentary. Alas, our anticipation was sadly misplaced.

The premise of the novel is quite unexceptionable: actress Cassandra Jane “C.J.” Welles, in the midst of a costume fitting for a play in which she will portray Jane Austen, walks backstage at a Greenwich Village theatre in the 21st century and out into the Theatre Royal in Bath circa April 1801–just a month before Jane Austen and her family will arrive to search for a home there.

C.J. is almost immediately arrested for thievery and begins a tour of the seedy underside of Georgian Bath. Fortunately for those patiently waiting for Jane Austen to arrive on the scene, C.J. is rescued by the eccentric Lady Dalrymple, who introduces C.J. to the handsome Earl of Darlington, who is in his turn much taken with the “original” Miss Welles. His lordship also just happens to be a cousin by marriage of Jane Austen.

“But Editrix,” the cry rings out round the Austensphere, “what’s so bad about that?”

Nothing, of course; but as in many things, the devil is in the details. (more…)