The RSC’s major winter production is MIDDLEMARCH PARTS 1 & 2 in the Swan Theatre (follow link to my review). This adaptation of George Eliot’s 900 page novel is done as two plays, but still takes six hours with intervals. The cast are great, and Nina Raine’s adaptation is still Middlemarch, with the addition of Amanda Root as George Eliot herself watching the play and occasionally advising her characters. The Guardian selected Middlemarch as The Greatest Novel of All Time in 2026, so how does the play stand up? Read the review.
We saw it over two days! Four stars. I’ll now read the book. When we did English at Bournemouth School there wasn’t a single female author on our curriculum.
Roger
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You’d enjoy the Andrew Davies serial. Part one is a double episode,
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It wasn’t so much Bournemouth School’s fault (though so many things were). I found my A level English papers, and while they had a degree of choice on the texts, there wasn’t a single female author among the choices. I guess it was reversed. A friend was an A level marker for years. She told me that she felt sorry for teenage boys, because at that age, most boys really don’t “get” Jane Austen. Still they do “get” the Brontës.
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