MEDDLING Emma Woodhouse is set to both delight and enrage a Malvern Theatres audience, in a stage version of a Jane Austen classic.

The great novelist must have realised that everyone has met an Emma: a young woman with little experience of real life who still insists on becoming a matchmaker for her friends.

A spokesman said: "Romance, scheming and mistaken intentions, Jane Austen’s original romantic comedy Emma, brought to life in many on-screen adaptations, finds a new incarnation in a sparkling new stage adaptation by acclaimed writer Tim Luscombe.

Directed by Colin Blumenau, Luscombe’s faithful adaptation of this comic masterpiece marks the 200th anniversary of Austen’s death."

The spokesman added: "Young, bright and beautiful, Emma Woodhouse has the world at her feet, or at least the small part of Surrey in which she lives. When the dashing Mr Elton comes to town she decides to take it on herself to perform the role of matchmaker to her new friend Harriet Smith. But to Emma’s great surprise, the more she tries to manipulate the destinies of others, the less success she has, until she herself, determined never to wed, is forced to face her own feelings and perhaps even she will dare to love another.

"Keeping faithfully to the original, Luscombe relates Austen’s story with verve and style, transporting her famous characters vividly to the stage, including the dashing Mr Knightley, the comic hypochondriac Mr Woodhouse and the sublimely verbose Miss Bates."

The tour will star Bethan Nash as Emma whose credits include Swallows and Amazons and London Road at the Bristol Old Vic.

Luscombe has been described as theatre’s ‘Austen champion’ with his previous partnership with Colin Blumenau on Mansfield Park being critiqued as ‘Riveting adaptation… utterly absorbing… created with much love, affection and, above all, intelligence’

Colin Blumenau’s knowledge of Georgian theatre is considered to me unmatched, and during his time as artistic director of the Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, the country’s last Regency Playhouse, he uncovered many Georgian plays, in some cases performing them for the first time in nearly two hundred years.

Colin said "The early 19th century is, by now, my creative homeland. Coming back to Jane Austen after a couple of years, coupled with my twenty years of exploring the Georgian and Regency literary and dramatic repertoire makes me very happy indeed. "Tim Luscombe's adaptation and Libby Watson's design give us the freedom to tell a brilliant story with style, wit, beauty and verve. It will be a production for both the purist and the uninitiated. I hope that the former will enjoy the fidelity to Austen's work. Equally I hope that the latter will be pleasantly surprised by its humour, its modernity and its universality."

Emma will be appearing at Malvern Theatres from Tuesday June 27 to Saturday July 1. Tickets are on sale at the Box Office 01684 892277 and online at malvern-theatres.co.uk.