INTENSELY personal and engagingly direct, Rebecca Vaughan returns to Worcester with all the tireless vigour that makes her one-woman performances such an inspiring experience.

She is arguably the most talented actor of her generation. To watch her in full flow as she immerses herself in a character is not so much a memorable event, more a milestone in one’s life.

Jane Austen was a witty commentator and observer of the social and literary mores of the early 19th century landed gentry, a closed and dynastical society that was eternally preoccupied with the need to make the right marriage choice.

To many of us of the television generation, this is mainly personified by the verbal swordplay and Cupid’s arrow volleys exchanged between Lizzy Bennet and Mr Darcy.

However, there is much more to Austen’s writing than this, as Dyad Production’s Ms Vaughan so deftly demonstrates.

So while the delectable Mr D dangles helplessly, caught on the well-baited Bennet hook, we should not overlook the skilled wordplay characterised by the shrill hootings of Mrs Norris and Augusta Elton, who demonstrate that the highways and byways of the heart’s journey are indeed littered with perilous twists and turns.

Throughout this 70-minute odyssey of upper class pre-Victorian life, Ms Vaughan never falters or deviates from the path of true love.

It’s refreshing but at the same time rather lamentable that in this age of social networking, tweets and texting that there was once an age when the English language was treasured as a beautiful rose, well watered and nurtured by writers such as Jane Austen.

Gloriously, Rebecca Vaughan more than does this great writer justice and we eagerly look forward to her next visit to Worcester’s Swan Theatre.