After fourteen years of living with an aunt, Emma Watson returns home and attends a dance organized by the Edwards. This is how the novel The Watsons, by Jane Austen, begins, which, a hundred pages later, ends like this: “Emma, ??of course, did not allow herself to be persuaded, although the respect she had for Elizabeth increased when she heard these words And look, the visitors left alone” (translation by Núria Sales, published by Cal Carré).
The novel ends like this, but it’s not the end of the novel, and not because Austen had a stomach ache or died, but because she didn’t want to finish it. The reasons for this are not known, and it is precisely from this fact that the story of the Watsons is resumed until an ending that the English playwright Laura Wade has tailored for her, in a play with the same title. Premiered in London in 2018, and endorsed by the British success, the play arrives in Catalan at the Sala Gran del TNC, translated by Joan Sellent and directed by Josep Maria Mestres.
“Austen did little work, all very wonderful, but only six novels – explains Mestres-. The Watsons is one of the first, but it is not known why he stopped writing it, and with that the work begins. Maybe it was too similar to his life, with a clergyman father, etc., and that’s why he left it.”
“Wade starts from the hundred unfinished pages – he continues -, which have the same literary height and the same sense of humor as his other novels. How can it be that this self-taught woman, who lived in the countryside but had a large library at home, makes these protagonists so wonderful?”.
The director stops here and orders the company that accompanies him in the presentation of the TNC montage that no one leaves their tongues: “I don’t want to explain anything, because we will take the audience by surprise. One of the most beautiful things about this show is to let yourself be carried away by the hidden things. As a spectator you think: wouldn’t he have been able to go this way? Yes. That’s why the less things we explain, the more beautiful the gift will be.”
Mestres considers Els Watson “a classic and, although it is a cliché, in this case it is indeed a classic of rabid topicality”. He also describes it as a “philosophical comedy; philosophy has an important part in the show”. The director of the TNC, Carme Portaceli, adds: “It is a contemporary classic because it has a contemporary structure and perspective.”
The gift the director is talking about also has to do with the great production that the TNC has made. On stage, 18 performers, with veterans such as Mercè Aránega, Lluïsa Castell, Jordi Banacolocha or Fina Rius. But none are headliners. “The two protagonists, even though it is a choral work, are Laura Aubert and Laia Manzanares”. Aubert plays the playwright Laura Wade, who apparently plays a significant role in her own work, but nothing more has been said to keep the gift unwrapped. And Manzanares is Emma Watson, the sister who is at the center of the action.
Aránega is enthusiastic about the production: “I have a very small role, but I liked the performance so much that I told the director that I wanted to be there. In addition, it is translated by Joan Sellent, and everything he translates is always a marvel.” Portaceli reveals that Sellent, on the same day he received the original, already told them that it was very powerful, “and after three he already had a first translation done”.
The cast continues with Hodei Arrastoa, Guillem Balart, Dafnis Balduz, Abdi Cherbou, Jordi Coll, Mireia Illamola, Paula Malia, Olga Onrubia, Laura Pau, Marc Rius and José Luis Salinas, and the children Arnau Cot and Jan Daniel González. A flock of first performers, who will surely serve a good role.
“Austen liked the dances, the dinners, the splendor, possibly because she didn’t have it and that’s why she looked at it in a very critical way”, declares Mestres, who highlights Jon Maya’s choreographies. And Manzanares concludes: “Besides being profound and beautiful, the function has a lot of play, so much so that it seems like an amusement park to me. We have fun, but we also dig deeper.”
