Quite accidentally, I found out that Jane Austen and her family like to do plays. So as to enjoy this better, I'm speculating that maybe the whole 'plays are bad' thing is just a superconservative position Sir Thomas would have, so all the moral outrage is due to his influence on their views and to their fear of him. And the only thing that makes it really bad is the pretext it provides for certain characters.

Strangely enough, the way Edmund is described at the beginning made him sound really likeable in an atypical way. But Edmund's behavior as the novel continues is irritating.

At least the play will be wrapped up in the next three to four chapters, and then there will only be a few more before the second half of the book! I don't hate the first half anymore, but I look forward to the part where it really picked up for me.