Jane in Denver by Diana Birchall

Cast of Syrie James’ play, Pride and Prejudice: Six Rocky Romances. Janet Todd, Diana Birchall, James Nagle, Devoney Looser, Syrie James, Paul Savidge, Francine Mathews, Paul Birchall

No, this isn’t Austenesque fiction in which Jane Austen herself, or perhaps the Darcys, crosses the Atlantic Ocean in a wooden sailing vessel, travels across the United States in a wagon, and ascends the Rocky Mountains in pattens. I don’t think Denver was even founded until about forty years after Austen’s death, which makes the delicious scenarios described unlikely; but I must remind you that I once DID write a novel entitled Mrs. Elton in America, and that unquenchable lady did indeed reach the Far West. As far as I know Austen herself only mentioned America a couple of times – once when Tom Bertram in Mansfield Park exclaims to Mr. Grant, “What think you of this business in America, sir?” Additionally, Austen wrote a poem to her niece Anna, comparing her mind to the vastness of America.

No: coming down to earth from flights of JAFF fancy, I only propose to give you some of my impressions of the JASNA (Jane Austen Society) Annual General Meeting in November, which I attended with my son Paul. We performed in a play together, among other enjoyable activities. The conference title was “Pride and Prejudice, a Rocky Romance,” but the conference itself wasn’t actually in Denver; the hotel was near the airport, in Aurora, on a windy plain with grand mountain views. The Gaylord Hotel is a vast place “as vast as any savannah” (as Austen wrote of Anna), really enormous, airy, spacious and seemingly uncrowded, like the plains themselves, even though three major conferences were being held simultaneously. A slight drawback to this was that it involved walking such long distances to get from one’s room to conference rooms, which tended to be tiring. However, there was so much to do, such wonderful talks and side trips, old friends to see and new ones to make, that we were all in a state of excited delight.

Sunset in the Colorado mountains

Paul and I flew from Los Angeles with Professor Janet Todd, keynote speaker and our friend who’d been visiting us. On arrival I had to dash half a mile or so to Matti’s Millinery, which was set up in the conference Emporium, enticing rooms filled not only with beguiling gowns and accessories, but also the location for  Jane Austen’s Books, that seductive headquarters  for Austen-related books new and old. It would be possible to spend the entire conference there just browsing, but with so many activities there’s not time!  The talented Matti had designed my gown for the play, made of beautiful fuchsia Indian silk sari material, but it was a little too long, so needed to be handed over to her promptly, to be ready for the play.

Next morning, Thursday November 2, we had our first live rehearsal for the play, Jane Austen in 48 Minutes: Six Rocky Romances, written by my friend and sometimes writing partner Syrie James. This was Syrie’s own play, a rollicking comedy that reduces every novel to its basic essentials, with hilarious results. It was done as a stage reading, so we didn’t have to memorize, but it took a considerable amount of staging, as it was so fast-moving and we had to get up and move forward (or backwards or sideways!) at just the right moment, snip snap quick! We’d had a Zoom rehearsal, and now we had two in-person ones, to hone everything to the desired perfection of fastness and funniness. Syrie is an excellent manager and director, as well as writer, and the rehearsals were lively fun indeed.

Tea at the Brown Hotel

We had a cast of Janeites, distinguished personages who loved the chance to say the witty Austenian lines aloud!  Syrie played Jane Austen as narrator, while the authors Devoney Looser and Francine Matthews (Stephanie Barron) played the younger leading women; I the older female character parts, like Mrs. Bennet, Mrs. Norris, and Miss Bates. Paul played an equal number of male character parts (we each played nine parts – almost rivaling Mr. Rushworth with his two and forty speeches!), and he particularly shone as Mr. Collins, Mr. Elton, and John Thorpe. Paul Savidge and James Nagle played the other gentlemen, leading men (Darcy) and caricatures (Sir Walter) alike, while Janet Todd had a cameo star turn as Lady Catherine. The hardest thing, we found, was the problem of juggling our accessories. As Mrs. Dashwood, a widow, I wore a black lace headpiece; as the outrageous Mrs. Elton I wore the flamboyant fuchsia bonnet that went with my costume, and so forth. It was quite difficult to manage without fumbling, at exactly the right moment, to put on your current bonnet or fan or shawl into a basket and pick up another for the next part.  Frantic fun!

After that first rehearsal Paul and I went on an afternoon side trip, to the Denver foothills. Traveling by bus with a congenial group of Janeites, we drove through beautiful mountain views at about 7,000 feet, stopping at Red Rocks Amphitheater, a lovely little Old West town called Evergreen, and more. Back at the hotel we dined with our afternoon companions, Professors Linda Troost and Sayre Greenfield, in a nice Japanese restaurant.

Cast before the play

Friday was a busy day. A final rehearsal in the morning, and then the opening plenary talk by Dr. Claudia Johnson, entitled “Austen Escape. ” Then the first breakout session; I chose Inger Brodey’s, and she discussed the novel The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister, who rather surprisingly used many Jane Austen themes and references. Inger’s description of his use of these themes and what it meant to readers of the early 20^th century, was fascinating, and made me determine to read the novel. Next I heard a talk by Collins Hemingway “A Heart Full of Wonder,” about how Jane Austen stripped away historical writing techniques to invent her own.

Diana and Paul in the Colorado foothills

In the evening the famous one-man show Being Mr. Wickham was presented, with the actor Adrian Lukas giving what was said to be a fantastic interview; but I was too tired to walk all the way back after dinner, and missed it. Paul went, enjoyed it mightily, and told me all about it.

Saturday was the busiest day of all. Janet Todd gave her lecture, which was simply magnificent; it was titled “To Dream of Pemberley” but it touched on many aspects of her long and illustrious scholarly career, filled with her learning, her observations and her humor. It received a standing ovation from a huge audience. After lunch, there were more breakout sessions: I attended Juliet McMaster’s, about the Netherfield chapters; Devoney Looser’s, about early film versions of P & P; and Sue Scott’s about ideolects and speech patterns in Austen.

Breakout sessions over, it was time for the grand banquet, which we all attended in high feather (literally) in our costumes; I sat at the table with the other cast members of our play, and we were joined by the great costume inventor Baronda, dressed as Mr. Collins and all too ready to read from Fordyce’s Sermons.  But barely was dessert finished than it was time for our play performance! It went very well, the theater was filled with hundreds of people, who greatly gratified us with much laughter and applause. The ball continued for long after the play ended, but I retired, quite exhausted!

For the Sunday morning brunch session, Francine Mathews gave her clever lecture about the Bennet sisters as detective  heroines. After that, we went off on our second tour, a trip into Denver itself (so we did get there!) to visit the Denver Art Museum, which did not disappoint, with its fine art and Western history themes. After that we continued on to the gorgeous old Brown Hotel, in its Gilded Age glory, and enjoyed an extremely delicious and fancy high tea.

Monday we mostly relaxed around the hotel grounds, watching rabbits, and enjoying a huge outdoor fire pit, and an equally a red sunset, and final talk with friends until it was time to head to the airport.

Like Catherine Morland who “danced in her [sedan] chair all the way home,” we danced in our plane home,  bumping over the Rockies, but the journey was brief and we had much to talk over and remember with great pleasure.