Lady Anna: All At Sea

Anthony Trollope, author of the ‘Chronicles of Barsetshire’ and distant ancestor of Joanna, was a Victorian novelist widely acknowledged as ‘pretty good’. ‘Lady Anna’ is one of his lesser-known novels and it’s widely acknowledged to be pretty bad. The stage version certainly is: this melodramatic mess is terrible.

Commissioned to adapt it by the Trollope Society, writer Craig Baxter has done his best, but this feels like a vanity project. ‘Lady Anna: All At Sea’ includes enough exposition to sink a ship and is the sort of thing Victorians would perform to each other after supper. Colin Blumenau’s creaky production – full of bustles, books and lots of onstage costume changes – doesn’t help matters.

Lady Anna’s maniacal mother fights for recognition and wealth with the family of her newly deceased husband, the wicked Earl Lovel. As Anna stands between penury and the peerage she’s also stuck between two suitors: the foppish but sweet new Earl and her childhood friend, the surly but principled tailor.

Mimicking Trollope’s habit of talking directly to the reader, Baxter’s text has its own ironic narrative style. We are forever jumping from Anna’s world to that of her author, with Trollope discussing his book with anyone who will listen. Blumenau’s ‘knowing’ direction follows suit and it’s performed with the type of parental affection reserved for spoilt children.  

Any social comment about class or privilege Trollope may have intended is drowned out by all the flouncing; but I suspect he’s only got himself to blame for that.