She talks to Charmian Smith about the Fortune Theatre's latest production.
At 9am the Fortune Theatre's rehearsal room is a clutter of junk - cute stuff like old rocking horses, a wicker doll's pram, music boxes, and even a spinet, as well as old furniture, empty picture frames and boxes.
These are the props or stand-in props for the theatre's next production, Emma, an adaption of Jane Austen's novel by Michael Fry.
Before the actors arrive for rehearsal, director Lisa Warrington has a production meeting with the designer, stage manager, wardrobe mistress and musical director.
A serious debate ensues about how high the collar points should be for a country gentleman in 1820, as opposed to a town dandy, or whether the women's dresses should have trains on them as they have to walk backwards in a tight group at one stage.
One of the actors has to have boots made to measure because nothing in the theatre's wardrobe fits him and he has to look every inch a Regency gentleman.
Then there are the songs and musical pieces. Who will be playing and singing what? Should the spinet be tuned? What pieces should be pre-recorded?
The production crew moves off to work and Warrington turns her attention to the interview with the Otago Daily Times.
Warrington is an old hand at the Fortune, having directed more than 30 plays there since she arrived in Dunedin in the early 1980s to lecture in theatre studies at the University of Otago.
She admits to having reservations about yet another Jane Austen adaptation - she thought we'd seen as many Jane Austen adaptations on film and television as anyone needs in a lifetime - until she discovered British playwright Fry's adaptation of Emma.
"Michael Fry has found quite a clever little conceit to put a bit of a spin on it, so we are still getting Emma, but with a slightly different perspective. In a nutshell, he takes the notion from one of Jane Austen's other novels, Mansfield Park, of young people of that period wanting to entertain themselves by doing in-house theatricals," she said.
Five young people spend an afternoon in an attic amusing themselves by putting on their own private performance of Austen's new novel, Emma, published in 1815.
"The story of Emma is one of puzzles and false leads, perhaps Austen's most cryptic novel. If people don't know the story I'd hate to spoil it for them but suffice it to say there are characters who are not what they appear to be, who are conducting relationships which perhaps are not what they seem on the surface.
"Also there's a lot of word games - they play games with boxes of letters, they have charades, riddles, all those sorts of things that add to the notion of puzzle and resolving something "And at the heart of it is Emma Woodhouse herself, handsome, clever, rich and with rather too fine an opinion of herself."
Warrington loves the sense of playfulness, immediacy and inventiveness of this play.
The cast of five play all the parts among them, and find treasures in the attic to help make the scenes work.
She and her production team have had fun collecting items that might be found in a well-to-do family's attic in 1820.
"Of course an attic is a place where you put things that are no longer needed. For example, there's a lot of children's things up here, because, as you can imagine, when you grow up you put away your children's things. So the children's things become quite key in the performance.
"Perhaps you might find broken furniture up here or clocks that don't work any more or perhaps an old-fashioned music box or an old-fashioned musical instrument.
"They have a spinet for example, which is earlier than this period, but my justification for is that of course, they've got a lovely new piano downstairs so they've relegated the spinet to the attic."
Music was a popular activity in the early 19th century, and the actors sing and dance.
Many of the songs chosen for the production were mentioned by Jane Austen, but Warrington has had to select others that would have been around at the time.
"They sing a carol, so I had to figure out what carols would have been known in England at that time. It turns out Silent Night has been around a long time but only in German, so we are not singing Silent Night.
"It's interesting to look into history and see how things have evolved. We tend to look at things through the lens of the later 19th century rather than the earlier 19th century."
The cast of five includes four actors returning to their home town: Anya Tate-Manning, Tim Foley (as seen on Shortland Street), Patrick Davies and Mel Dodge.
Newcomer Julia Croft is originally from Christchurch.
See it
Emma, by Jane Austen, adapted by Michael Fry, opens at the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin on April 18 and runs until May 10.
