Q2 Players – “Persuasion”

Q2 Players and Barnes Community Players have come together in a joint production of Jane Austen’s last completed novel by American author Sarah Rose Kearns, performed at the National Archives in Kew.  In the 250th year since Jane was born in the small Hampshire village of Steventon they’re delighted to offer the first ever production of this play in the UK.  The play centres on the character of Anne Elliot. The story highlights the power of persuasion in observing the social pressures of the time, and contrasts Anne’s quiet strength and resilience with her father’s vanity and sisters’ social climbing.

Anne was only nineteen when she met and fell in love with Frederick Wentworth. They were briefly engaged… until Anne broke it off, on the advice of her godmother Lady Russell. Eight years later, however, tides have turned: Captain Wentworth returns to England, rich and successful from the war with Napoleon, while Anne finds herself exiled from her family home in Bath. Though their paths cross at society and family gatherings, Anne has faded to an ‘old maid’ looking on as Wentworth’s relationship with the Musgrove sisters becomes ever closer. Whom will he choose, will Anne overcome her regrets, and can Wentworth set aside his resentment?