Pride and Prejudice… “liberal dashes of humour and some delightful dialogue”
WELL, what do I call it then? A comedy, a romcom with elements of farce? The traditional story given a fresh take?
I confess I have never read Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, so I was wary of reviewing the latest production at Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake. I need to have had no concerns because a sparklingly entertaining play stands entirely on its own merits with liberal dashes of humour and some delightful dialogue.
Ten actors, some taking more than one role, combine in a production that is packed with vitality and lots of funny moments that you’ve got to stay alert to keep up with. I wasn’t rolling in the aisles at the humour, but I had many a chuckle at something witty cleverly inwoven into a period where attitudes and manners were very different.
It’s got the essence of Jane Austen’s literary classic from the 1800s when a family with daughters was much concerned with making a good match for them.
No matter if the gentleman was good-looking. A handsome inheritance was more important and, in this clever re-invention of the original story, Joanna Holden’s Mrs Bennet, driven to desperation and nervous exhaustion by the never-ending matchmaking quest, is very funny.
It’s Joanna’s third time in a play at the lakeside theatre, and here as the sharp, determined mother feverishly struggling to find suitable partners for her daughters, an obsession, I would not have immediately recalled her part in the soaring 2024 production of Brassed Off. By complete contrast, Dyfrig Morris’s Mr Bennet is a taciturn observer, more interested in disappearing behind his newspaper than in the machinations of his wife.
The girls have very different temperaments, too. There’s Rosa Hesmondhalgh’s Lizzie, steadfastly set against ever marrying. But is all she has been told about the brooding, irascible yet intriguing Mr Darcy (James Sheldon) true? Rosa achieves the balance between a daughter who is seen as marriage material to bring some wealth into the middle-class family, and a young woman kicking against the accepted view.
In a stunning end to the production, there is no Mr Darcy emerging Colin Firth style from the lake. But he still gets his shirt wet through. I won’t say any more than that.
Jessica Ellis’s Lydia is the mischievous youngest daughter, drinking the contents of the punch bowl at a party and being a total contrast to the bookish Mary (Eve Pereira), whose idea of fun is playing the Funeral March on the piano at a party.
There is a quick change of costume and character for Jessica Ellis after the interval, where she emerges as Lady Catherine de Bourg, whose grunting daughter is seemingly pledged to Mr Darcy.
There is no one more outlandishly hilarious than Ben Fensome in the role of the creepy, sweaty clergyman Mr Collins. There are shades of the slimy Mr Slope in Anthony Trollope’s Barchester Towers about the reptilian Collins. Fensome, who also plays the untrustworthy Mr Wickham, even makes moving the furniture on the “in the round” set entertaining. He’s got funny walks and funny voices aplenty as he mops his soggy brow.
There’s little room for doubting that Kiara Nicole Pillai’s Caroline Bingley has drawn the marital short straw.
Waiting for the play to start, there was some familiar music playing in the background. Total Eclipse of the Heart. There was some more recognisable music, definitely not from the 1800s.
Director Lotte Wakeham, who is artistic director of the Bolton Octagon Theatre, had the pace of the production just right. One minute off the wall laughs, the next a romantic interlude. As the story drew to a conclusion, I harked back to the Bonnie Tyler song. Were any hearts to be eclipsed here?
One thing for sure, audiences will gasp then rise up in applause at the ending like the near full house did at the show I attended.
Pride And Prejudice, a Theatre by the Lake, Octagon Theatre, Stephen Joseph Theatre and Hull Truck Theatre co-production with Theatr Clwyd, is at the Keswick theatre until Saturday 6th September.
