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Rose theatre, Kingston upon ThamesAva Pickett’s modern-day adaptation of the novel adds pop music, farce and clowning but lacks gimlet-eyed observationsAn early blast of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance sets the mood of this 21st-century take on Jane Austen’s comedy of manners. Award-winning writer Ava Pickett transplants the fictional village of Highbury to deepest Essex and dials up the modernity, music and laughs. Emma (Amelia Kenworthy) is a serious-minded type, albeit still insufferably self-regarding and judgy. She has just failed her finals at Oxford University and is in a state of emotional meltdown when she returns home to begin meddling in the lives of all around her.Her sister, Isabella (Jessica Brindle), loves fake tans and Elton (Bobby Lockwood) is an oily estate agent in sockless loafers. Emma’s biggest critic and secret admirer, George Knightley (Kit Young), is a builder and brother to oafish John (Adrian Richards), who is getting married to Isabella. Mr Woodhouse (Nigel Lindsay) is still a widower but also a latter-day Del Boy furtively carrying on with Mrs Bates (Lucy Benjamin), a beautician, while Harriet (Sofia Oxenham), kooky and hapless in love, works in the local Co-op. Continue reading...