I’ve been going on about this for ages, haven’t I? And it wasn’t all that good, was it? What can I say, I apologise whole-heartedly. Beautiful surroundings – check. Competent acting – check. Billie Piper being sweet – check.
Sure, it was all very pleasant, but in this post-Bleak House era, I’m afraid pleasant just doesn’t cut it anymore. There was nothing especially bad about this production – it looked lovely and there were no awful performances. Unfortunately there was nothing especially great about it either, and the two hours washed over you without making much of an impression.
Mansfield Park-the-novel is wonderful but can hardly be described as exciting, as all the scandal and intrigue happens ‘off camera’, so the production really needed to tap into the subtlety of the characterisation. It didn’t… there was no need to make Mary Crawford such a straight-forward villain, for example, and Mrs. Norris could have been funny as well as horrid.
I get as annoyed as everyone else when people say ‘oh the book is better’, but when you’re dealing with Austen, you’ve got to accept that you have high standards to live up to, and we’ve been spoilt recently with Bleak House and Jane Eyre. Billie Piper and Blake Ritson did their best to make their charming but ultimately introverted characters likable, and succeeded for the most part, but they were battling against a production that was, to be frank, just a little dull.
Dull is certainly not a word that can be used to describe next week’s adaptation, Northanger Abbey, so keep checking back during the week for my rather more upbeat preview. Also, take the short trip over to our sister-blog Trashionista, where they discuss the possible pitfalls of literary adaptations every single Friday!
[annawaits]
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