The Drama
There is something quite agreeable about a play which announces, through the use of “sort of” in its very title, that strict fidelity to the source material should not be expected.
This may be Jane Austen’s England, but the servants actually have a voice. And, at alarming intervals, those voices are employed in the disturbing modern curse of karaoke.
But, good heavens, what a tale of intrigue the hitherto unvoiced servants have to tell!
After clearing some nastiness (of uncertain pedigree) from a privy – with an elevated degree of comic horseplay – the downstairs help soon introduce us to Mrs Bennet and no less than five Miss Bennets, distinguishable only by their given names.
Upon my word, Mrs Bennet and her daughters have been cornered into something of a fiscal quandary, have they not!
It seems that under the prevailing succession arrangements, the younger Bennet ladies are precluded from inheriting rights to their father’s not insignificant property assets.
So the Bennet daughters had better secure plausible husbands, with some haste, or they will become quite undone.
Which of their potential suitors shall prevail?
Will it be the amiable Mr Bingley? Or perhaps the aloof Mr Darcy? How will the charming Mr Wickham fare?
How will this timeless story, told from a new and pleasing angle, end?
With delight or destitution?
The Moment
Mr Darcy (Zoe Ioannou) is having an epiphany. He turns, takes several determined strides towards centre stage and then, after a dramatic pause, the portentous opening chords of a familiar tune begin and Darcy deadpans:
I am sleeping
And right in the middle of a good dream…
Then Darcy finally declares to Elizabeth Bennet – in the words of David Cassidy, I believe… before he left the Partridge Family:
I think I love you
The moment is so brilliantly conceived and so perfectly executed that I start applauding and, perhaps for the first time in my theatre-going life, I provoke the rest of the audience to join me with their acclaim.
(I should pause to add that, whilst a strong ensemble piece, I thought Ioannou stole the show. I’m adding her to my list of performers I will drop everything to go and see.)
What My Eyebrows Told Me
Pride & Prejudice (Sort Of) is a good rendition of what it is trying to be – a comic literary adaptation, with karaoke thrown in.
I imagine the noses of some (pretentious) Jane Austen devotees might wrinkle.
But I ask myself whether Austen herself might enjoy the show.
I suspect Jane would proclaim that she found the liberties taken with her classic novel quite indefensible but that she laughed exceedingly at each one of them!
I, too, found Pride and Prejudice (Sort Of) hilarious. My eyebrows hovered between a Caterpillar Arch and a High Arch.
For more information on the Australian National Tour of Pride and Prejudice (Sort Of):
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