Theatre 2023: Pride and Prejudice, Sort Of

I am quite familiar with the plot of Pride and Prejudice after having read the classic Jane Austen novel of manners, as well as watching the 1995 British TV miniseries and the 2005 movie with the young, hot actors Colin Firth and Matthew Macfayden respectively starring as the iconic romantic hero, Mr. Darcy.  Set in the Regency period between 1811-1820, the story revolves around the Bennet family with five unmarried daughters who are not entitled to inherit from their father’s estate based on the laws of the times which dictate that property can only be passed on to a male heir.  The irritatingly pushy mother Mrs. Bennet is desperate to find wealthy spouses for one or more of her daughters so that the family can be supported after Mr. Bennet’s passing.  The five girls include beautiful and kindly eldest daughter Jane, handsome, spunky and witty Elizabeth (Lizzy), bookish and reclusive middle child Mary, and the two youngest daughters Kitty and Lydia who are described as insipid, self indulgent and ignorant.

Most of this ubiquitously well-known story revolves around the romances of Jane and Mr. Bingley, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy and to a lesser extent, Lydia and Mr. Wickham.  The general consensus is that title of the book refers to Mr. Darcy’s pride causing him to look down on the “lower class” and Elizabeth’s prejudice in judging Darcy based on first impressions. There is just as much evidence in the book to argue that Elizabeth’s pride was hurt when she overheard Darcy flippantly denigrate herself and her family when they first met, and that Darcy was prejudiced against the Bennet girls due to their need to marry in order to avoid their unfortunate circumstances.  Regardless, these two “character flaws” are the plot devices used to keep the Lizzy and Darcy apart for the bulk of the book.  In terms of tropes used in romance novels, not much has changed over the centuries.  The story has been adapted so many times and in so many ways.  There is a spoof novel called Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, multiple movies and plays with or without a modernized spin and several musicals including the 1959 version called “First Impressions”, which was originally going to be the title for this novel.

Accordingly, when Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort of), the play originally from Glasgow that won the 2022 Olivier award, arrived on the slate of the 2023-24 “Off-Mirvish” subscription series, one had to wonder what new ideas were left to freshen up this old tale.  As it turns out, this rendition of the classic romantic drama is a hilarious jukebox musical comedy featuring five talented actresses who play all the relevant roles from the novel, darting behind a screen or off stage to switch costumes and characters.  As a framing device, the plot of Pride and Prejudice is told from the perspective of the servants of the various households, which the same five actresses also play.  This allows them to provide extra exposition such as explaining the inheritance laws of the time, to introduce or identify new characters as they first appear on stage and to manipulate the sparse props required by the story.  They also stress the important narrative role that servants could play in affecting a plot, such as misdirecting a missive (think about what happened in Romeo and Juliet!).  As we sat in the audience waiting for the play to start, we kept hearing a ringing sound which turned out to represent the buzzers used to summon the servants.  One by one, they appeared from the back of the theatre wearing plain white cotton slip dresses, yellow rubber gloves and using rags and dusters to “clean” the seats along the aisles.

Once on stage, the servants playfully bantered amongst themselves, dusted and cleaned, and explained their purpose within the play.  They then turned on music from a “boom box”,  grabbed microphones and belted out the Elvis Costello song “Every Day I Write the Book”, which is the perfect song to reflect their roles in presenting the stories about their employers.  This injection of karaoke-styled singing of classic pop songs continued throughout the play, sung by both the servants and the characters within the Pride and Prejudice story.  Occasionally instruments were played as part of the musical numbers.  In true jukebox musical fashion (or at least for good jukebox musicals), the songs were cleverly selected to fit right in with the plotline.  Jane crooned “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow” by the Shirelles after meeting and becoming instantly smitten with Bingley at a dance.  When Elizabeth showed her distain for Mr. Darcy after feeling insulted by him, she retaliated with Carly Simon’s hit song “You’re so Vain”.  When Mr. Darcy’s wealthy and powerful aunt Lady Catherine de Bourgh made her appearance dressed in flamboyant red dress, naturally Chris de Burgh (pun intended?)’s song “Lady in Red” was performed to usher in her entrance.  When the Bennet family was in despair because Lydia had disgraced them by running off with the rakish Mr. Wickham, the sisters belted out “Holding Out for a Hero” in hopes that someone could find and save her from ruining her reputation.  And most hilariously, Mr. Darcy finally admitted his feelings for Elizabeth by singing David Cassidy’s hit “I Think I Love You” from the Partridge Family TV series.

The main story of Pride and Prejudice started with one of the servants quoting the actual first line of the novel—“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife”.   At this point the quick-change artistry began as the actresses jumped from character to character.  One of the actresses portrayed Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Darcy and another played Elizabeth’s best friend Charlotte Lucas, as well as Mr. Bingley and his sister Miss Bingley.  It was quipped that the siblings "looked nothing alike".  A third actress played Jane Bennet, Mr. Wickham and Lady Catherine de Bourgh.  A fourth actress had the most roles, taking on Mary Bennet, Lydia Bennet, Mr. Collins, the tedious priest and cousin of Mr. Bennet who would inherit the Bennet estate, as well as Mrs. Gardiner, the sister-in-law of Mr. Bennet.  The actress playing Elizabeth Bennet was only responsible for this one role within the main story since she was in almost every scene.  Poor Kitty Bennet was only referred to and not shown onstage at all.  Comically, Mr. Bennet was purported to be sitting an armchair facing away from the stage while reading a newspaper.  As scenes changed, “Mr. Bennet” along with his chair was pushed on and off the stage.  At one point, a servant lit a cigar for him, and smoke emanated from the front of the chair.

There were other examples of the play’s clever use of props to portray some of Pride and Prejudice’s plot points but in a humorous fashion.  With rain in the forecast, Mrs. Bennet forced Jane to ride a horse rather than take a carriage to visit Mr. Bingley, in hopes that she would be stranded due to bad weather and asked to stay longer.  Mrs. Bennet’s loud proclamation that “It’s time to mount Willie” (the horse) drew the expected laughs from the audience and then a large plastic horse was brought out which Jane needed a step ladder to climb up onto.  To simulate the rain that she encountered, Jane was sprayed with water from the servants’ water bottles.  Sitting in the fourth row of the theatre, we actually felt a bit of that spray.  In the scene where Elizabeth and her aunt Mrs. Gardiner visited Darcy’s Pemberley estate and viewed a life-sized portrait of him, two servants held up a giant empty picture frame in front of the actress playing Darcy in order to simulate the painting.  To reflect Lizzy’s confused emotions upon seeing Darcy’s image and not being able to take her eyes off it, every time she turned around, the portrait “moved” with her so that she was facing it again.  This happened a few times and on the last iteration, she turned to face Darcy himself as he had unexpectedly arrived a day early.  At this point, there was a sly reference to the 1995 BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice where Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy is infamously wearing a soaking wet, see-through shirt after swimming when he unexpectedly meets Elizabeth.  In the play, the servants hilariously asked why Darcy was not wet, which would be totally out of context if you did not understand the reference.

Despite the limited cast and the camp and silliness, Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort of) does an amazing job of hitting all the important plot points of the source material.  It does add a few anachronisms such as the metal step ladder for mounting the horse, the doc marten boots worn by the servants, the karaoke machine and wireless microphones, but they just add to the fun.  There was also some swearing (even by the ladies) thrown in for comic effect as well as a very funny recurring subplot where Lizzy’s friend Charlotte is actually gay and pines for Elizabeth while settling for marrying dull Mr. Collins.  Lizzy is totally oblivious to Charlotte’s feelings and misses all the subtext behind her words.  The servants had the last word and closed the show by singing a rousing rendition of  “Young Hearts Run Free” by Candi Staton.

This was one of the most enjoyable, entertaining and creative plays that we have watched in a long time.  We laughed, we cheered, and we bopped along to the tunes.  I wish that they would film a West End production like they do with so many other plays so that it will show up on a streaming service, since I would love the opportunity to watch it again.