A Jane Austen Regency romp where the alcohol is served in Red Solo Cups and important conversations take place out back by the skip.
This isn’t your grandmother’s Pride & Prejudice. Mrs Bennett uses an inhaler, Mary Bennett breaks into the Fortnite dance, Mrs Gardiner is ‘Auntie G’. Superfans of Jane Austen’s novel and its celebrated screen adaptations will be awash in deep cuts and winking references (the lake scene, of course, being a matter of utmost importance); those who are encountering Austen or Pride & Prejudice for the first time will enjoy trying to separate fiction from, well, fiction.
In this Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of), written and directed by Isobel McArthur, a group of all-female servants have gathered to re-tell the beloved story of mistaken impressions, irresistible wit and copious yearning among the Bennett sisters and their in/eligible suitors. A cast of five means actors play more than one character, and this demand for versatility is where the performances shine. Julia Murray is particularly excellent as both a deliciously (sometimes tempestuously) hysterical Mrs Bennett and a sulking, socially awkward Mr Darcy. The absence of male actors also means (*sort of) brings a delightful sapphic twist to the characters both within and without the world of the story, including a fun interpretation of Charlotte as Elizabeth’s unrequited lover. Ana Inés Jabares-Pita’s costumes shine on this account, too: colourful suit jackets and cravats recede into servant’s dresses, never allowing us to forget that this is one fabulous game of dress-up.
The premise itself—servants playing the characters, including an opening salvo about how house staff are the people who make Austen’s plots happen—is generative. It adds new emphasis to Mrs Reynolds’s role as the Pemberly housekeeper who shows Elizabeth that her ostensibly cold-hearted suitor is the best thing to happen to her (and all of us). The premise also affirms that Pride & Prejudice is more than a love story. Elizabeth recognising her feelings for Darcy upon seeing Pemberly in all its glory is no coincidence: this is also a story about wealth and property, inheritance and class.
It seems significant that Elizabeth is the only character in (*sort of) whose actor plays her exclusively (Georgia May Firth, with an appropriate dose of sauciness). Maybe that is because she is in most of the scenes; maybe the rotating cast around Elizabeth, including the Mrs Bennett/Mr Darcy and Mr Wickham/Jane doubling, suggests she is being played in more ways than one.
Although Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of)’s main aim is a fun night at the theatre with lots of laughs—and this it surely achieves—the adaptation might have dug deeper into the implications of its provocative frame narrative. What, after all, are we left with when the dusting is done?
This show runs at Cambridge Arts Theatre until 14th Nov. Tickets here.