Casting has been announced for the West End transfer of Laura Wade’s The Watsons at the Harold Pinter Theatre. When a new writer starts to finish Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, things goe awry when the writer loses the plot and the characters take charge.
Following sold-out runs at the Chichester Festival Theatre and the Menier Chocolate Factory, Laura Wades play The Watsons adapted from the unfinished novel by Jane Austen will play at the Harold Pinter Theatre from 8 May until 26 September 2020.
Samuel West directs Sam Alexander (Robert Watson), Sally Bankes (Nanny), Jane Booker (Lady Osborne), Elaine Claxton (Mrs Edwards), Ralph Davis (Lord Osborne), Tim Delap (Mr Howard), Sophie Duval (Mrs Robert), Louise Ford (Laura), John Wilson Goddard (Mr Watson), Rhianna McGreevy (Margaret Watson), Grace Molony (Emma Watson – she was Evening Standard Award-nominated for her performance), Elander Moore (Bertie), Paksie Vernon (Elizabeth Watson) and Cat White (Miss Osborne), who reprise their roles.
Nineteen and new in town, Emma Watson’s been cut off by her wealthy aunt. She needs to marry, and fast, or be faced with a life of poverty and spinsterhood stuck in her humdrum family home.
Luckily, she has plenty of prospective suitors asking to dance, from dashing socialite Tom Musgrave to the stinking rich, socially awkward Lord Osborne. Which partner to pick?
So far, so familiar, but that’s when Jane Austen stopped writing. Two hundred years on, her forgotten heroine’s happy ending still hangs in the balance.
Picking up an unfinished novel, Olivier Award-winner Laura Wade’s new comedy pops the bonnet on Jane Austen’s world and asks: what happens when a writer loses the plot and fictional characters take control of their tale?
The Watson’s is designed by Ben Stones, lighting by Richard Howell, sound design by Gregory Clarke, movement by Mike Ashcroft music by Isobel Waller-Bridge and casting by Charlotte Sutton.
