Jennifer Kirby (Catherine Morland), Tom Hartill (Henry Tilney), Natasha White (Isabella Thorpe), Tom Holloway (John Thorpe), Russell Dady (James Morland), Claire Bibby (Mrs Allen/Annette), Ella Brown (Eleanor Tilney), Sam Heydon (General Tilney/Mr Morland), Anni Tosh (Mrs Morland/Mrs Thorpe) and Rachel Porter (Stage Manager)

This Spring Black Ram brings one of Austen's most witty and ingenious novels to life, as their eleventh production since 2007. An often overlooked gem, Northanger Abbey centres around the life and times of Catherine Morland, a young mind filled with naiveté and a ferocious imagination.

Catherine quickly finds herself whisked into the strange and mesmerising world of Bath's high society, where she meets the dashing Henry Tilney. But as romance blossoms, Catherine unwittingly uncovers a dark plot of murder and intrigue. Can Catherine live up to the heroines in her favourite novels? Can she uncover the secret, right the wrong and save the man she loves? Or has she just read too many books? Featuring many actors from the casts of previous shows including Jane Eyre and Twelfth Night, Northanger Abbey is a fast paced, charming adventure into the capricious mind of Jane Austen, one of the greatest romantic writers of all time.

Mary Dunk, Suffolk Free Press:

"Never go out in a carriage with a man who doesn’t read novels – particularly one as vain about the quality and price of his wheels as John Thorpe. Catherine Morland, played consistently well by Jennifer Kirby, learns this through painful experience in this exciting touring adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel.

It’s not the only thing our heroine learns. Catherine needs to travel to Northanger Abbey to understand that truth is usually much duller than fiction, and that the spooky Abbey ruin of her imagination is just that. Her appetite for reading lurid Gothic fantasies, where maidens discover frightful secrets in haunted houses, is skilfully presented through the use of black-robed chatterers. Their stage presence tracks her notions that all is not what it seems – they spin and gossip, in foreign accents, adding intrigue where none exists. Jennifer Kirby gives us an immensely likeable heroine who grows out of this fixation with shock-lit into maturity and, of course, marriage.

She has fallen for the heir to the property, Henry Tilney, whose father is rather a mean-minded snob instead of the mad wife-poisoner of her fantasies. General Tilney (Sam Heydon), like Catherine, is easily impressed but with money rather than scary storylines. He eventually approves of his son’s choice, despite his earlier antagonism, when learning of her £3,000. Tom Harthill’s eminently sensible but witty Henry has to be a more suitable prospect than the flashy carriage-driver John Thorpe, played by Tom Holloway. John and his flippant sister, Isabella (Natasha White), sparkle in their roles as shameless and egotistical flirts who have no qualms in lying about Catherine to wreck her friendship with Henry.

Two large square openings on each side serve as on-stage windows, walls and when back-lit, brilliant opportunities for shadows. The windows block off views of the outside world, reinforcing the narrow confines of the contemporary social whirl at Bath. The cast move carefully, in formal dance sequences using re-orchestrated sound tracks like Madonna’s Material Girl to give a modern twist to old rules.

In a world when adults couldn’t possibly talk to anyone to whom they had not been introduced, no wonder that intelligent and capable young women turned to fiction for company. Black Ram’s venture into the elegance and pettiness of this world is a brilliant success. Under Ross McGregor’s direction, the story delivers so much insight into our glib world of social-networking – then, as now, relationships based on trust and honesty are the ones most likely to survive."