Photographs and Reviews from Northanger Abbey: A Gothic Romantic Comedy
adapted by Lynn Marie Macy
Many thanks to Lynn Marie Macy for sharing these images
and Theater Ten Ten for providing the press reviews.
Adapter's Note:
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey was written as a satire on the Gothic Romance novels, which were so popular in her day. I was inspired to include Catherine’s Udolpho fantasies in this adaptation because modern audiences are unlikely to be familiar with the work of Radcliffe (who unlike Jane Austen has fallen into relative obscurity). Ann Radcliffe was one of the most celebrated and widely read authors of the period. In her novel Jane Austen’s recurring references to The Mysteries Of Udolpho were reliably based on the presumption that the reader would be well acquainted with the particulars of Radcliffe’s work. In this stage adaptation Miss Catherine Morland and the audience simultaneously discover Radcliffe’s novel. The sharply contrasting worlds of the authors, give free reign to Austen’s wit and comic genius.
— Lynn Marie Macy
Theater Ten Ten, New York, NY, 20 October — 19 November, 2006.
Theater Ten Ten's new revival of Northanger Abbey: A Romantic Gothic Comedy is rousing, entertaining theatre. Lynn Marie Macy's adaptation of both the novel by Jane Austen and The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe is a paragon of its form. This funny and suspenseful production boasts strong writing, expert direction by David Scott, and a crackerjack cast led by the beguiling Tatiana Gomberg. If you need a Jane Austen fix, you could not ask for a better one than this.
Macy's decision to juxtapose Northanger Abbey and Udolpho works really well. She pokes good-natured fun at the kind of literature that was most popular back then (i.e., Radcliffe's, not Austen's), while providing Catherine with the impetus she needs to go seek adventure. Plus, the Udolpho sections are fun little diversions for the audience, supplying over-the-top comedy, whereas Austen's humor is more of the subtle drawing room variety. Northanger Abbey is loaded with incident after incident, and at more than two-and-a-half hours there's a lot of information to take in. But, Macy does a splendid job of delineating characters, locations, and events without confusion. She is equally good about distinguishing the Udolpho sections from the rest of the play.
I can't recommend Northanger Abbey: A Gothic Romantic Comedy highly enough. It is a superb piece of theatre that will reward all comers who are tuned into its timeless gentility.“I’m afraid I shall make a poor figure in your journal tomorrow,” Regency bachelor Henry Tilney says to romance-thriller reader Catherine Morland in Lynn Marie Macy’s 2000 adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey, now revived at Park Avenue’s Theater Ten Ten. In Austen’s novel, Catherine’s journal remains mostly private, as the story is told in the third person. At Theater 1010, however, Tilney has no such escape, because Catherine narrates her own romance, in the first person. He doesn’t know it, but she’s his author. This and other bold yet informed choices by Macy and Theater 1010 make Northanger Abbey: A Romantic Gothic Comedy a balanced marriage of integrity and innovation.
Austen and Radcliffe fans and newcomers alike should find 1010’s Northanger Abbey a truly captivating place to visit.
Northanger Abbey, Theater Ten Ten's clever new play, merges the best of Jane Austen—engaging heroines and romantic plots—with the gothic suspense of Ann Radcliffe, an earlier, 18th-century English novelist. But playwright Lynn Marie Macy can't take all the credit: Austen's Northanger Abbey makes many references to Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. This modern production of Austen's book, directed by David Scott, takes those references off the page and plays them as actual scenes that are woven into Austen's story. The result is a vibrant interpretation of a classic.
Theater Ten Ten's adaptation of Northanger Abbey brings new life to what is considered one of Austen's lesser-known works while showcasing a lesser-known writer whose work made this 19th-century classic possible.
Distilled Spirits Theatre at The Flatiron Playhouse, New York, NY, February 2000.
Lynn Marie Macy’s Northanger Abbey is a thorough delight, a treat to the senses, and a gift to the imagination.
Playwright Macy deftly weaves incidents from the novel as replayed in Catherine’s vigorous imagination with the comparatively placid but no less eventful incidents in Catherine’s real world. The result is a delicious Wizard of Oz like journey through Catherine’s two worlds culminating in her unexpected visitation to the Tilney’s estate, Northanger Abbey. Austen via Macy triumphs as storyteller par excellence. And Macy as adaptor triumphs too, by beguiling us not only with this splendid and compelling tale, but also with a remarkably felicitous depiction of Austen’s world. Northanger Abbey’s got it all…action, adventure, wit and enough plot for half a dozen plays. I urge you not to miss it. Brava!Lynn Marie Macy’s entertaining adaptation is titled Northanger Abbey, A Romantic Gothic Comedy, and it is an ambitious attempt to meld the Austen Novel with Radcliffe’s The Mysteries Of Udolpho, the 18th century tale Northanger Abbey sets out to satirize … this is an ingenious concept. The two stories in the two styles give the large cast many opportunities. Playwright Macy makes Catherine into a lively narrator often endowed with Austen’s editorial comments.
Northanger Abbey is probably the most adventurous of Jane Austen’s novels, in that it steps outside the more sedate milieu of her other works. In its day, it was no doubt rather daring. The Mysteries of Udolpho includes duels, and over-the-top declarations of love from young men … with one or two hauntings thrown in for good measure. You could say that this is the story of a girl growing into true womanhood, dealing with the subtleties of human beings, and told with beautiful language.
Blue Room Theatre, Chico, CA, 13-29 March 2003.
At its best entertainment can teach you something while keeping you amused; such is the case with the Blue Room Theater’s production of Northanger Abbey, A Romantic Gothic Comedy. Playwright Lynn Marie Macy’s decision to tell the stories of both Austen’s novel of manners and Radcliffe’s over-the-top potboiler romance creates a delightful contrast. Ms. Macy's decision to tell the stories of both Austen's novel of manners and Radcliffe's over-the-top, potboiler romance creates a delightful contrast. In one scene, you have the people of 19th-century England going through the required motions of polite society. In the next, you watch stereotypically overdramatic romance-novel characters navigate through the tumultuous Europe of a century earlier - some with amusing accents reminiscent of The Godfather. Ultimately in Northanger Abbey, Catherine must decide whether she wants to live in the real world or play out a fantasy life. It is a lesson we still need to learn today.
Catherine uses Udolpho as a kind of template for determining who’s who, leaping from her early 19 th century English setting to the fantasy of Radcliffe’s continental-draped dream world. That modern playwright Lynn Marie Macy has managed a seamless juxtaposition of the two books that is both fluid and hilarious is a marvelous feat.
My comments relating to the play and Theater Ten Ten's production
Return to the Northanger Abbey adaptations page
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