**A Modern Emma: Ava Pickett’s Contemporary Take on Jane Austen’s Classic at the Rose Theatre**
Picture yourself in a buzzing Essex nightclub, the air thick with sweat and the thrum of dance music. You’re tipsy, laughing with friends, and one of them—sharp, meddling, well-intentioned but perhaps a little overbearing—is busy swiping through your dating apps, determined to fix your love life. This is the world of Ava Pickett’s new stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s *Emma*, brought vividly to life at London’s Rose Theatre. But this isn’t the Emma of Regency England; this is Emma for the Tinder generation.
**Reimagining a Literary Icon**
Jane Austen’s original 1815 novel introduced readers to Emma Woodhouse, a privileged young woman living in a comfortable English village. Emma’s pastime is orchestrating matches among her friends, her self-assurance and good intentions often leading to comic complications and social blunders. In Pickett’s adaptation, the essence of Emma’s character—her intelligence, wit, and penchant for interference—remains intact, but the setting and stakes are refreshingly modern.
Here, Emma is not attending elegant balls or worrying about dowries. Instead, she’s navigating the social minefields of online dating, group chats, and the pressure of living up to family expectations. After failing her Oxford exams, she returns home to Essex—unwilling to admit the truth to her proud, working-class father, who is delighted by her academic achievements. Emma is the first in her family to attend university, and the weight of that milestone hangs over her as she tries to rediscover her place in her hometown.
**A Personal Connection**
Ava Pickett, the playwright behind this new adaptation, brings her own experiences to the story. Raised in Clacton, Essex, Pickett was also the first in her family to go to university. Although she completed her degree, she describes feeling “like a failure” when she struggled to find work afterward, having trained as an actor. This sense of disappointment and defensiveness, she says, often manifested as a need to control or advise others—a trait she sees reflected in her version of Emma. Pickett explains, “I think a lot of that is at play with Emma. She becomes quite contrary and overconfident in how everyone else should be living, and how I needed to be.”
At just 31, Pickett is already a celebrated writer, known for her work on acclaimed television dramas like Sky’s *Brassic* and the BBC’s *Ten Pound Poms*. Her debut play, *1536*, was staged at London’s Almeida Theatre, and she is currently collaborating with filmmaker Baz Luhrmann on a project about Joan of Arc. Despite her success, Pickett admits she hadn’t read *Emma* before being approached by the Rose Theatre’s artistic director, Christopher Haydon, who wanted her to write a new adaptation. Once she began reading, however, she was captivated. “I really identified with that feeling of being 21. She’s so young, but on the cusp of adulthood. She believes she knows everything about everyone else’s life and what they need to do to be happy. She reminded me so much of me at that age.”
**Austen’s Enduring Appeal**
Jane Austen’s novels have never truly gone out of style, but in recent years her work has experienced yet another resurgence. This year marks the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth, a milestone celebrated by a slew of adaptations and tributes. Recent highlights include the BBC’s TV series *Miss Austen*, a star-studded film version of *Emma* featuring Anya Taylor-Joy, and the West End’s musical adaptation of *Clueless*, itself based on the beloved 1990s film that reimagined *Emma* in a Beverly Hills high school. Netflix, too, is getting in on the action with a new adaptation of *Pride and Prejudice* starring Emma Corrin.
For Pickett, the decision to set her adaptation in the present day was easy. “I was talking to a lot of my friends about dating, about relationships, and I began to recognize Emmas in my own life,” she says. Instead of tea parties and pianofortes, her Emma and her friends—played by Amelia Kenworthy (Emma) and Kit Young (George Knightley)—spend their free time in pubs