There’s a special magic with a new play. When it’s an adaptation of a beloved novel the excitement is greater.

Tyler Seguin has adapted Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey in a production that premiered this weekend at Guild Festival Theatre in Scarborough, directed by its adaptor.

Northanger Abbey takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl too eager to believe the fantastic elements of the books she reads. Putting her world onstage is a fascinating process, a series of choices made by Tyler that in various ways parallel the choices made by young Catherine Morland, the credulous young heroine of Jane Austen’s novel.

What is real, what is imaginary?

Look at this photo I can almost believe it’s showing us Tyler’s process, deciding whom to include among the large roster of characters in the book, how to present their story and how to squeeze those bodies & incidents into a script flying by in a mere 100 minutes last night.

Or maybe I’m as gullible as Catherine..? But it’s fun imagining his process, showing us her process…

How, you may wonder, could Tyler squeeze a big book into such a short duration of performance time?

A theatrical approach is key, asking the audience to use our imaginations, asking us to be like Catherine.

Crowding the stage with a huge number of players wasn’t feasible nor desirable, so alongside Georgia Findlay playing his Catherine Morland, Tyler asked the three Ensemble players onstage (Kiana Woo, Andrew Prashad, Isaiah Kolundzic) to each play at least nine different parts. Kiana & Isaiah each play ten parts, Andrew plays nine. And that doesn’t include the additional portrayals of machinery, such as the times they are pressed into service impersonating a carriage, as we see in the photo above (where tables do double duty as wheels, although the program didn’t give the tables any credit for their extra role portrayals).

It’s a lot like what Catherine was doing in her fanciful reading of Gothic romances. I was eager & ready to believe Georgia as Catherine surveying her strange surroundings, drawing us into her story-telling, the book she carried like the horizon of her wacky world.

It’s a good thing that the Ensemble players were so capable of creating distinctions between their many different characters, their endless variety populating Catherine’s frantic microcosm.

Voices did a lot of the heavy lifting, each actor changing their delivery several times over, sometimes high sometimes low, over the top and often ridiculous. Isaiah’s General Tilney was especially commanding of the stage and the viscera of the audience, booming and bellowing belligerently at us, his fake moutache bouncing around on his face, as he often trailed off into foul unintelligible gibberish.

The costuming, and fake facial hair (even for Kiana) helped clue us in as to which one we were watching, gender being no obstacle. Each of the three Ensemble players were at times male or female, sometimes going back and forth quickly from one role to another. Several of the changes inspired spontaneous applause from a captivated audience, caught up in the spirit of preposterous yarn spinning.

Sometimes it was movement, Andrew a reincarnation of the Minister of silly walks sketch from Monty Python among his several roles.

The stunning architecture of the performance space seemed especially well suited to a show relying so heavily upon theatrical effects, playfully aided by music, puppets & smoke.

I was laughing loudly throughout.

The spirit of Jane Austen lurks in this funny work, that still offers many of Austen’s usual caustic critiques of women’s vulnerability in her time and beyond, but seen through a more playful & satirical lens.

Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is the second part of GFT’s “Gothic Girl Summer,” that began with Brontë: The World Without, a recent play by Jordi Mand last month. I’m thrilled to see the support for Canadian authors particularly in the development of this new work from Tyler Seguin.

I see a future for Tyler’s show especially among theatre students, as I think Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey is ideal material for young actors learning their craft. I am reminded of the production of Martin Chuzzlewit we did at TMU (formerly known as “Ryerson”) more than a decade ago, the many personages offering unique opportunities for the young actor.

Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey will continue at the Greek Theatre at the Scarborough Guild until August 23rd, especially recommended for fans of make believe & the fantastical. Click for tickets & information.