Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

On Thursday the 11th of September 2025, my parents and I saw a stage production of ‘Emma’ by Jane Austen at the Theatre Royal in Bath. We were on holiday at the time, and it was purely by chance that we came across this theatre production of ‘Emma’ in Bath. 🙂

It was fortunate we were able to get tickets to go on that Thursday night to see ‘Emma’ at the theatre. We had a good view of the stage where we sat and we found ourselves enjoying the production thoroughly. I hope we’ll visit the Theatre Royal in Bath again in future.

‘Emma’ as a Jane Austen story is one I’m very much familiar with. I’ve seen BBC TV productions of the story, including the 1972 TV adaptation and the 2009 TV adaptation. I’ve also seen the ‘Emma.’ film adaptation, which was released in 2020, and I saw it at the cinema.

Therefore, I knew what to expect when checking out this theatre production of ‘Emma’ at the Theatre Royal in Bath. And it was very good to be seeing it to celebrate 250 years of Jane Austen as an author. Amazing Jane Austen has a landmark anniversary this year too.

‘Emma’ as a story features a very snobbish titular character, played very well by India Shaw-Smith. It depicts her being a wealthy young woman attempting to be a matchmaker where she lives. She doesn’t understand how romance works, which adds to the comedy.

It was easy to find the theatre production of ‘Emma’ very funny, as many of the audience, including me and my parents, were laughing away at the comedic moments. The production is treated like a comedy as well as a drama, evoking the spirit of Jane Austen’s story.

It’s certainly a lot better than what I saw in the 2020 ‘Emma.’ film. 😀 As well as India Shaw-Smith as Emma Woodhouse, there’s Ed Sayer as George Knightley, Emma’s love interest. I enjoyed how Emma and Mr. Knightley’s relationship is developed in the drama.

There’s William Chubb as Mr. Woodhouse, who’s easily the funniest character in the theatre production. There’s Maiya Louse Thapar as Harriet Smith, Oscar Batterham as Reverend Philip Elton, and Daniel Rainford as Robert Martin, Harriet Smith’s love interest.

There’s Peter Losasso as Frank Churchill, Jade Kennedy as Jane Fairfax and Rose Quentin as Augusta Hawkins, who marries Reverend Elton in the story. Interestingly, the character Miss Bates doesn’t appear in the story compared to the film and TV productions I’ve seen.

I found this unusual, considering there’s a scene where Emma inadvertently insults Miss Bates during a picnic scene that becomes crucial to the story. Instead, the insults are mostly directed at Jane Fairfax, which I believe did happen in the film and TV productions.

The first act of this theatre production of ‘Emma’ closes with the Reverend Phillip Elton openly insulting Harriet Smith when his feelings for Emma Woodhouse are rejected. Harriet overhears this and eventually faints to the floor, and this is at a Christmas party. 😐

I don’t think that occurred in the film and TV productions I’ve seen, but it was fascinating to see it be done in this theatre production. There are also moments where there are dances in the production, as expected in a Jane Austen story, at the start and at the end. 🙂

There are also moments where Emma Woodhouse and Jane Fairfax get to sing in the production, which was nice. The production scene changes are very good with backstage members dressed in period costumes moving furniture. The sound effects also helped. 😀

Overall, this latest theatre production of ‘Emma’ was very worthwhile to see at the Theatre Royal in Bath. I’m pleased my parents and I saw it in Bath recently whilst on holiday and it was terrific to see it to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen as an author.

Incidentally, as well as coming to the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff in June, ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ is coming to the Theatre Royal in Bath in July. I’m debating whether to see ‘Fawlty Towers – The Play’ in Cardiff or in Bath. Great decision to make! 😀

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂