Unfinished Business

This quirky short play imagines the frustration of long-deceased authors whose unfinished literary works are taken up by well-meaning modern writers. It offers actors a chance to have enormous fun, engaging with period-style texts and features an unexpected twist at the end.

Sanditon, originally titled The Brothers, was begun by Jane Austen in January 1817 but left unfinished due to her declining health; she passed away in July of that year. The novel has since become a favourite among “continuators”, writers who attempt to complete the story in Austen’s spirit and style. A television adaptation premiered in 2019 and ran for three seasons. As for what Jane Austen herself would have made of all this - we can only imagine…