OBSERVER: Pride and Prejudice (sort of)
Writer Isobel McArthur has given the full pantomime treatment to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, in this (sort of) reimagining.
Complete with slapstick, physical comedy, sight gags and contemporary song, lovers of Austen may well claim the caricatures who inhabit the novel were the forerunners of the genre such is the comic timing and enthusiasm of the cast.
Five performers (Amy Lehpamer, Zoe Ioannou, Kaori Maeda-Judge, Ruby Shannon and Teo Vergara) play each and every role changing costumes, accents and even their posture to invoke the likes of Mrs Bennet, Mr Collins, Darcy and Elizabeth with impeccable timing.
The ensemble has become like one virtuoso performer in this regard. Not a single beat is lost.
Simon Harvey’s direction has ensured that lighting and sound (Jason Boviard, Marcello Lo Ricco) are seamlessly interwoven on a simple set (Ana Ines Jabares-Pita) consisting of a
grand stairwell and a faux floor to ceiling bookcase.
Isaac Lummis’ costumes complete the picture with Lady de Bourgh’s outfit eccentrically outrageous.
Crucially, the contemporary elements do not detract from the core of Austen’s work. There are moments when the original 1813 comic dialogue stands unadorned because of its agelessness. A modern touch is then added with Charlotte’s sapphic longing for Elizabeth and the inclusion of songs like Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain, which are an acknowledgement of the emotional timelessness of the vanity, desire, pride and foolishness of the human condition of which Austen was a critical observer.
Regency England might well have been shocked when made aware of the class division and misogyny of the day. Audiences today merely chuckle when the decorum of Elizabeth’s rejection of Mr Collins’s proposals is placed in the classic vernacular, “F… Off!” when she loses patience.
This is a faithful rendering of the basic story line with an equally faithful indulgence in the theatrical craft of slapstick, anachronism, and nonsense which is all played out with energy
and vigour.
Athenaeum Theatre until July 11.
Reviewed by David McLean
Pictured: Kaori Maeda-Judge, Teo Vergara, Ruby Shannon and Zoe Ioannou in Pride and Prejudice Sort Of.
Photo: Matthew Chen