“Courtship - Scenes from the novels of Jane Austen” is the longest running One Woman Jane Austen show – launched by KIm Hicks in 1981.

In the years since Kim first created this show, Jane Austen’s novels have been turned into an array of film and TV spectaculars and her popularity with an ever increasing audience has grown year on year. What is lost though, in these adaptations, is the delightfully rich voice of Austen herself as narrator – not so with Courtship. All the extracts in the show are unabridged, each picked to reflect an aspect of this ongoing theme in Austen’s novels and often chosen to highlight her excellence as a remarkably fine writer of comedy.

Courtship was the first One Woman Jane Austen show and has outlasted those that followed for good reason – Kim’s sheer delight in the exquisite perfection of Austen’s works is infectious and will captivate you from start to finish. Not one drop of humour is missed and each word or phrase, so painstakingly crafted by Miss Austen, is given the clarity and expression it deserves. Those new to Austen’s work will be as enchanted as long established fans.

“Kim Hicks triumphantly impersonates Jane Austen in her delightful and shrewdly chosen readings . . . but to call them readings does no justice to Miss Hicks’s sparkling artistry, for she makes Austen’s characters leap off the page.”   Mario Relich

Reviews for Courtship:

“Beautifully attired in period costume, Kim Hicks triumphs splendidly, carrying the audiences along with her zestful recreation of the characters and their world.”  

“Kim Hicks . . . has the vivacity and charm of Austen’s more captivating characters . . . genteel yet sparkling entertainment.”  

“With her manner the very personification of intelligent wit, she brought the scenes vividly to life . . . it’s a shrewdly economical performance, exploiting every telling gesture and as carefully effective with silence as with speech.”  

“Kim Hicks has achieved another one woman cracker . . . versatile master of caricature and unrelenting stamina , one was left with a more lively appreciation of Austen and a breathtaking admiration for the actress who never drew a breath all night.”  

“Hicks’s dramatic presentation. . . highlights Austen’s skill in creating character through dialogue, while her qualities as a satirist are fully revealed in her splendid rendering of Henry Tilney’s spooky description of his family seat in Northanger Abbey.”  

“Kim Hicks intensifies this subtle irony . . . to render a charmingly biting portrait of the characters.”