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''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
"Remember, when you leave this Earth, you can take with you nothing that you have received—only what you have given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage."
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This fast-paced and delightfully inventive production brings all of Austen's beloved novels to life in one unforgettable performance. Six novels, countless romances, scandles and witticisms – all in under 90 minutes…and afterward enjoy vino changed from water with Gre and Sim
Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Mansfield Park.Major NovelsSense and Sensibility (1811):
Two sisters navigate contrasting views on love and reason after financial changes force a move.Pride and Prejudice (1813):
Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy overcome class snobbery and personal misjudgments.Mansfield Park (1814):
Quiet Fanny Price stands firm against moral corruption while living with wealthy relatives.Emma (1815):
Well-meaning, rich Emma Woodhouse mismanages the romantic affairs of her neighbors.Northanger Abbey (1817): Naive Catherine Morland learns to separate Gothic fiction fantasies from real-life society.Persuasion (1817):
Anne Elliot gets a second chance at true love years after turning down a proposal.Minor and Unfinished WorksLady Susan:
Short epistolary novel about a manipulative widow.
The Watsons & Sanditon:
Unfinished narrative fragments.
Juvenilia:
Early comedic stories written during her youth.
It was a fast forward and rewind enacted synopsis of Jane Austen’s plays from go to woe on the opening night. The audience was in for a charming, funny and rapid view of Austen’s women and men outlining the stupidity of Regency society through to pointing out that for most women of that era, it was ‘marriage or poverty’. Definitely read at least a couple of her novels for her ironic view and wonderful language on family and economic values. Best of all, the play is about real sisterhood and friendship through trials, tribulations and at times love and hope.
The set was a cartoon version of a Regency living room with the obligatory chaise lounge. Heidi Jilwan and Georgia Britt set the scene, breaking the ‘fourth wall’ and addressing the audience. Wearing Empire style dresses, bonnets and hairstyles they set to debating which was the best novel. As the audience settled, the immediate problem of a missing leading man was solved by a willing replacement actor ‘from the audience’.
Enter the actor, Peter Hoekstra-Bass, who quickly highlighted that he didn’t have a clue about Austen’s work but ‘needed the gig’. This was wonderful for any audience members who equally hadn’t had any information or who had only watched the television series, Bridgeton.
The set was a cartoon version of a Regency living room with the obligatory chaise lounge. Heidi Jilwan and Georgia Britt set the scene, breaking the ‘fourth wall’ and addressing the audience. Wearing Empire style dresses, bonnets and hairstyles they set to debating which was the best novel. As the audience settled, the immediate problem of a missing leading man was solved by a willing replacement actor ‘from the audience’.
Enter the actor, Peter Hoekstra-Bass, who quickly highlighted that he didn’t have a clue about Austen’s work but ‘needed the gig’. This was wonderful for any audience members who equally hadn’t had any information or who had only watched the television series, Bridgeton.
The ensemble had a great natural chemistry as if they were all best friends. Each actor portrayed different characters in the book with asides to what their modern personality really thought.
Bonnets and top hats were used to depict new characters and each actor changed style and attitude depending on the book. Peter was at times, convincingly dashing as Darcy or painful as a parson clumsily professing love. Both Heidi and Georgia were witty, ditzy and lovestruck as each female character came alive with explanations to Peter why women reacted to the wrong man at the wrong time and how long self-reflection takes before they realise with whom they should be in love. Peter was both wonderfully bewildered and superb when putting on a hat altered his persona and posture.
Heidi and Georgia were convincing as best friends who were trying to understand Austen’s view of women, marriage and what choices they could or couldn’t make.
Through Ali Bendall’s tight direction, the messages and wit of Austen came out quickly as each farce, family and affair were rapidly thrown out to the audience to make of it what they would and adding modernisms and comparisons to modern love and female issues. This could be frustrating at times with clunky text and perhaps breaking the fourth wall too often. The audience laughed and clapped as the cast pushed us along to make sense of it all and it really didn’t matter anyway as Austen herself, through the character of Charlotte Lucas in Pride and Prejudice, said, “We are all fools in love”
This wonderful repertoire company has a winner on their hands again when three actors take on all of Austen’s beloved heroines, friends and love interests in her incisive social satire, all in 80 minutes. But when they lose a cast member, the two remaining ‘Janeites’ must teach an understudy about her work.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that an audience in possession of high spirits must be in want of a ticket to this big-hearted comedy that certainly knocked-the-socks-off Austen fans and newcomers such as your reviewer. If you were not a ‘Janeite’ at the beginning of the performance, you were certainly inscribed on your way to becoming one by the end. The play is a delight, wholly charming, original and for this newbie , i couldn’t stop smiling. Its an affectionate tribute to the author whose characters live indelibly in the minds of the readers all over the globe. The show’s real charm lies in its delicate negotiation between homage and parody.
The originators of this creative theatrical fun are a quartet of very clever ladies- Jessica Bedford, Katherine-MacMillan, Charlotte Northeast and Meghan Winch concocted this work over meetings with cheese and wine.
In this fast-paced romp, three actors take on all of the roles as the Protagonists and the Deuteragonists. Georgia Britt playing Charlotte and Georgia, Heidi Jilwan plays Jessica and Heidi and Peter Hoekstra- Bassplays Trevor, Harry and Peter. They raise the roof with their timing and devastatingly funny delivery, tackling the entire canon of Jane Austen’s works. These funny, nimble actors mine the depth of each character they portray with skill that had the audience laughing throughout. The audience at times act as active participants in the show, a truly labor of love as the show tells the audience just enough info about Austen to avoid overload. Our trio skewer the exact depth to cleverly represent the author’s work. Whether you’re a super fan or just dipping your feet into the pool of of her classic novels, like myself…or maybe you secretly wish to root for Mansfield Park, its impossible not to have fun with this performance. I found myself, as did the audience laughing out loud and clapping with delight, and leaning in, despite my lack of prior knowledge.
This production is a most proper and oh so wickedly delicious opus of comedic manners for lovers of all things Jane Austen and the “Regency Era Splendour.” In short this production says what we’ve all thought at one time or another, about the works, about the truths they highlighted, and about how little has changed in the affairs of men and women, despite how much has changed in our world since these stories were written. Its a cocktail of iterary truths with a repertoire of new-age references that connect the dots of Jane Austen stories and the truths of the everywoman. Director Ali Bendall along with Production Stage Manager Natalie Hughes bring us the heart of Jane through the minds of her characters. The Genesian Theatre Company have offered a satirical spark that make us enjoy the vintage and richness of these books allowing through the fabulous work of our actors the themes at the centre of the stories to rise to the surface.
Why do we love the heroines? It surly isn’t just for the antiquated garb and dense verbiage, but because we enjoy these stories that set the stage for the conversations and the clever juggling between the small cast. Jane’s fandom is embodied in the performance of Heidi (Heidi Jilwan) who is giddy and gossipy, Trevor/ Harry/ Peter’s role (Peter Hoekstra-Bass) is riddled with comedic brilliance, bumbling grace appropriate for the newbie he is. Georgia (Georgia Britt) invokes by body language extra layers to the story
The production team; costumes by Susan Carveth, sound by Ali Bendalland Cian Byrne and lighting by Cian Byrne collectively and cleverly don’t allow the satire to cross into the irreverent and make a mockery out of the things it claims to revere. They manage to put the microscope over Jane Austen’s work bringing out the fondness and idiosyncrasies of the characters stirring the underbelly with upbeat remarks, such as, about female anatomy and clothing that gave women of the time “great tits”. In short, this winning production is a fun spoof and highly recommended .
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JANE AUSTEN ABRIDGED is playing the Genesian Theatre, St Joseph’s Church Hall, 2b Gordon Street, Rozelle until Saturday 22nd August 2026.
The Complete Works of Jane Austen (Abridged)
Written By:
Jessica Bedford, Kathryn MacMillan, Charlotte Northeast & Megan Winch
Directed By:
Ali Bendall
Playing From:
17 July – 22 August 2026 AD
Synopsis
Three actors. Six novels. Countless romances, scandals, and witticisms — all in under 90 minutes! When a cast member drops out, two Janeites must train up an unsuspecting understudy, plunging audiences into a whirlwind of Austen’s greatest hits. Fast-paced, big-hearted, and endlessly funny, this irreverent love-letter will delight die-hard Austen fans and newcomers alike.
Tickets on sale Early 2026!
Dates and Times
Preview: Friday, 17 July 2026 Opening Night: Saturday, 18 July 2026 Closing Night: Saturday, 22 August 2026
Fridays and Saturdays at 7.30 pm Sundays at 4.30 pm
Bloomberg – no paywall – Trump Extends Pardons to Companies, Echoing a 17th Century King “…Unlike in previous administrations, commutations as well as pardons have cleared unpaid penalties tied to the convictions…Since taking office for the second time, Trump has become the first modern US president to issue pardons for companies, from a Middle America auto supplier to a crypto platform and a media startup.
The clemency grants have wiped out almost $200 million in financial penalties, some of which were destined for victims of wrongdoing. The pardons underscore Trump’s broader willingness to blow past the boundaries of executive authority in a second term that has been far less constrained by political and legal norms. He has granted clemency to almost 1,700 people in the past 18 months, far outpacing his predecessors, often benefiting political supporters or people who claim to be victims of legal weaponization…”
Defiance.org: In Donald Trump’s second term, something extraordinary is happening. Without an amendment to the Constitution, he has invented something new. I call it the “super pardon.” A Bloomberg report out this week dives into Trump’s latest corrupt feat, revealing how he’s become the first president in modern times to issue pardons for companies. If you’re baffled, you should be, but it’s even more alarming than you think because Trump’s not simply forgiving corporate crimes.
He’s giving companies what amounts to a hall-pass to carry out misconduct in the future…It’s important to take a beat to understand how radical this is. For the 239 years since the Constitution was ratified, the pardon has typically been understood as an act of mercy for individuals. Presidents grant clemency to people who committed crimes but are seen as deserving a reprieve, whether because their sentences were unusually harsh or their convictions were unjust. The founders saw the power as a safety valve to temper the severity of the law and, on occasion, restore domestic tranquility. They didn’t envision it as a magic wand to be waved over entire corporations, i.e. legal fictions that cannot sit in a jail cell, cannot be executed, and cannot, in any meaningful sense, be shown “mercy.”…
Plain haircut
Trump Is Insider Trading – Made 2.4 Billion Doing It This Year Alone
Nvidia. April 2025: Trump posts “very big and exciting news” to his nine million followers about Nvidia building AI supercomputers in America and vows that all federal permits will be fast-tracked. What he doesn’t mention: days earlier, his accounts bought between $200,000 and $500,000 of Nvidia. The man expediting the permits owns the stock the permits pump. Then in January 2026, his managers buy up to $1 million more of Nvidia — and the very next week his administration relaxes export controls so Nvidia can sell its prized AI chips to China. Buy first. Deregulate second. Repeat.
Palantir. Hundreds of thousands in purchases through March, then a Truth Social post in April praising Palantir’s “war-fighting” chops — with the stock ticker included. A sitting President posting a ticker symbol like a Discord pump group admin. Palantir’s federal contracts, meanwhile, nearly doubled to $970 million.
American Eagle. Buys $15K–$50K of the stock on July 31. Four days later, posts about the Sydney Sweeney jeans ad tell the world the jeans are selling out. The President of the United States. Shilling mall denim. Because he owns it.
Eric Trump says it’s all “broad market indexes.” The disclosure his dad signed lists thousands of individual stock picks. Someone’s lying, and it’s the one whose last name is on the filing.” It’s a huge conflict of interest,” Ethics attorney Virginia Canter said, arguing that Trump is funneling official information through “a private channel in which he has a private interest.”
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 11, 2026 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness.
Six highlights from this week: Every Way Meta Tracks You, and How to Fight Back; AI Agents Can Be Tricked Into Stealing Your Files, Researchers; All Cars Sold in the EU Now Require a Camera Aimed at Your Face. It’s Still Not Clear Where That Data Goes; Unpatched Flaws Disclosed in Filesystem Bundled Into Millions of Embedded Devices; and Wikipedia Is Battling for the Soul of the Internet.
Predicting the Court: Evaluating Large Language Models as Forecasters of Supreme Court Decisions
Large language models are increasingly used by lawyers to analyze legal materials and forecast litigation outcomes.
This Article evaluates four leading large language models-GPT-5, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Claude Sonnet 4.5, and Grok 4-as predictors of Supreme Court decisions using every argued merits case from October Term 2025. Although the models predicted some aspects of the Court’s decisions with surprising accuracy, conventional performance metrics overstated their predictive ability. Much of the models’ justice-level accuracy reflected the Court’s ordinary ideological alignment rather than case-specific legal analysis.
The models also systematically overpredicted ideologically divided decisions, particularly in politically salient cases that the Court ultimately resolved on narrow and often technical legal grounds. Rather than treating prediction as a simple accuracy problem, this Article uses the models’ recurring successes and failures to illuminate the current strengths and limitations of AI-assisted legal prediction and the continuing role of human judgment in forecasting judicial behavior.
