Jane Austen 
Northanger Abbey (NHB Modern Plays) 
(stage version)

Catherine Morland knows little of the world, but who needs real-life experience when you have novels to guide you? Seizing her chance to escape her claustrophobic family and join the smart set in Bath, she meets worldly, sophisticated Isabella Thorpe – Iz, to her friends – and so Cath’s very own adventure begins.
This playful and surprising reimagining of Northanger Abbey is infused with the spirit of Jane Austen’s original novel and fizzes with imagination and humour. It was premiered in 2024 at the Orange Tree Theatre, London, before touring to Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.
‘Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of any sort of… disappointed love.’
‘A smartly playful adaptation that pulses with real passions… it asks big, clever questions about personal agency, authorship and control… Austen would thoroughly approve’ – Evening Standard
‘Moves at a tremendous clip… the wooing is done with such subtlety and good humour’ – The Times
‘An incisive adaptation that approaches the tale from a fresh, contemporary angle… exuberantly, unashamedly silly… Quick-fire scenes jump about in time, skilfully picking apart the narrative with flashbacks that offer new context, or cutting away to asides where the characters debate their real intentions… an appealing, intriguingly flawed protagonist… unexpected and intriguing’ – The Stage

‘A spirited three-hander romp… it’s exhilarating, transmuting Austen’s daftest novel into something really quite beautiful’ – Time Out

Sobre el autor

Zoe Cooper is a playwright whose work includes: A Song for Ella Grey, adapted from the novel by David Almond (Pilot Theatre, 2024); Northanger Abbey after Jane Austen (Orange Tree Theatre Richmond, Octagon Theatre Bolton, Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough and Theatre by the Lake, 2024); The Kiss (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, part of the Inside/Outside season of short plays, 2021); Out of Water (Orange Tree Theatre, 2019, in association with the RSC; a finalist in the 2020 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and shortlisted for the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Awards 2019); and Jess and Joe Forever (Orange Tree Theatre, 2017, followed by UK tour; winner of the Most Promising Playwright Award at the Off West End Awards 2017; longlisted for the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award).