Northanger Abbey Reviews

Chicago Tribune- Somewhat Recommended

"..."Northanger Abbey" provides a handsome and thoroughly agreeable take on Austen's tale. The ensemble boasts some fine supporting work, particularly Annabel Armour as Mrs. Allen, Catherine's ditzy and fashion-obsessed chaperon who can get a laugh just by saying "muff and tippet." Schultz, an old hand at grittier fare who I wouldn't have pegged as a natural for this kind of period piece, stages a clever ballroom scene where Anderson's Henry and Price's Catherine mime a cotillion while the former muses on the similarities between dancing and marriage."

Chicago Sun Times- Highly Recommended

"...There are many reasons to catch Remy Bumppo Theater’s sparkling production of “Northanger Abbey,” the U.S. premiere of Tim Luscombe’s devilishly good stage adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. But the main one is to discover Sarah Price, a young actress with relatively few credits but enormous skill, charm and high theatrical intelligence."

Chicago Reader- Highly Recommended

"...There's a genteel sort of hell to pay for all these fictions, and it's depicted charmingly, both in Tim Luscombe's 2004 script and in Joanie Schultz's imaginative and assured staging of it for Remy Bumppo Theatre. Sarah Price is a delightful grab bag of adolescent effusions as Catherine."

Time Out Chicago- Highly Recommended

"...Schultz stages all of this (and more) with an elegant playfulness-lighting, set design and Thomas Dixon's original music ease our transition from the constrictions of Morland's life to the heightened reality of her dreamscape. Part of the fun here is watching Morland's willful misreading of her surroundings, even if it falls to Tilney to teach her that life is far less dramatic than a gothic novel and, as he puts it, "no one is entirely black or entirely white." In an early scene, he compares a cotillion to a marriage. As a bit of rhetoric, Schultz has rendered it perfectly on stage: As Austen makes clear, social formalities-like marriage itself-involve not a small degree of performance."

Stage and Cinema- Highly Recommended

"...Of course, with Austen it’s not the happy ending that enthralls us through these 150 minutes, but the tangled course of true love Shakespeare knew so well. Though the obstacles to the marriage that will bless the plot aren’t as formidable or ingenious as in Austen’s better known novels (especially the astute Emma), Joanie Schultz’ knowing staging makes them matter as it holds out interest with ease and enthusiasm."

ChicagoCritic- Highly Recommended

"...Remy Bumppo is adept a mounting period pieces like Jane Austen's works. Her fans will enjoy the faithful staging of the time and world of the English gentry when finding someone to dance with and marrying into the 'right' family was the zenith of life. This is a entertaining production."

Chicago Theatre Review- Highly Recommended

"...Remy Bumppo’s 17th season opener is a thoroughly enjoyable evening of early nineteenth century melodrama, manners and morals, seasoned with flights of shadowy gothic fantasy. Tim Luscombe’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel beautifully maintains the spirit of its source material and is destined to play to many more audiences after this awesome American premiere."

Chicagoland Theater Reviews- Highly Recommended

"...Jane Austen zealots should be well satisfied with the Remy Bumppo production. The adaptation respects the specific world that Austen created and her understanding of the flawed by decent characters that populate that world. Viewers less committed to Austen might complain that the show could be cut by 30 minutes with no hard feelings, and in truth they may be right. But I enjoyed the acting, the Austen language, and the feeling that in Sarah Price’s performance I might be witnessing the birth of a star."