April Hughes (left) plays Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bennet, Sarah Gobran is her mother, Mrs. Bennet, and Luke Barton is her father, Mr. Bennet, in a new, whimsical stage adaptation of Pride & Prejudice.
In a whirlwind of wit and whimsy, Abigail Pickard Price’s (with Sarah Gobran and Matt Pinches) new stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice offers an unexpectedly funny take on the classic, featuring just three actors who embody 18 characters. Directed by Price, this madcap rendition breathes fresh life into Austen’s sharp social satire, as the performers navigate cultural pitfalls of Regency England.
Gobran and Barton play the parents in Price’s madcap version of Pride & Prejudice.
Price’s adaptation is a pared-down version of Austen’s novel, relying on a Narrator (April Hughes) to impart pertinent information as the plot unspools. The story revolves around Elizabeth “Lizzie” Bennet (Hughes), a quick-witted, independent young woman from a landed gentry family in early 19th-century England, and Mr. Darcy (Luke Barton), a wealthy and, initially, proud gentleman. During the span of about a year, it follows their evolving relationship as they overcome personal misunderstandings, rigid social rules, and their own flawed judgments.
An invented Prologue, spoken by the Narrator, wisely draws on the enduring opening line of Austen’s novel (published in 1813), to establish the wry satirical tone:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
These elegant and sweeping words are coupled with a vignette that shows the protagonist walking down the aisle as the groom stands apart with his back to the audience, leaving viewers unsure of which character Lizzie is to marry. It’s an effective opening that sets the stage for the romantic and social entanglements to come.
Pride & Prejudice has been directed by Abigail Pickard Price for the Guildford Shakespeare Company. Photographs by Mark Dean.
The play proper allows one to witness the three-member cast hilariously insinuating themselves into more than a dozen characters with finesse: Sarah Gobran, as Mrs. Bennet, exhibits the matron’s aggressive matchmaking skills for her five daughters, and then does a 180-degree turn as she transforms into her gentlest daughter, Jane. Hughes portrays Lizzie with the requisite wit and charm, and then, donning a black tailcoat, adroitly slips into the skin of the refined and personable Mr. Bingley. Among Barton’s characters are not only the well-born but arrogant Darcy but also the well-meaning but passive Mr. Bennet, the self-important Lady Catherine de Burgh, and all three younger Bennet sisters.
Each role change is achieved with quicksilver timing and strategic shifts in voice, physical posture, and the inventive use of props. It’s a tall order for the performers—but this trio pulls it off.
Although this production leans into the playful tone of the novel, there’s a sobering backdrop to the story that inevitably comes to the fore when characters engage in their daily routines. In one particularly clever touch, Mr. Bennet makes his entrance reading aloud a news sheet announcing the arrival of the militia in Meryton:
The militia arrived in Meryton last Monday, embodied in the national defence against possible invasion, and to keep the peace whilst the Regulars are engaged, the regiment have been warmly welcomed by local victuallers, inn-keepers.
The line, delivered with deadpan flair, subtly grounds the play in its historical moment—the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars. It’s a moment that deftly threads Austen’s domestic world with the larger geopolitical tensions of her time, all without losing the production’s light, satirical spirit.
Of course, the relationship between Lizzie and Mr. Darcy is at the heart of the story. And it’s a tough go for them to get past their negative first impressions of each other. Although Mr. Darcy ultimately surrenders to Lizzie’s charms and proposes to her, his marriage proposal exposes his prejudice toward people who are socially inferior to him:
Gobran as Mrs. Bennet with April Hughes as her daughter Lizzie in Pride & Prejudice.
My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. Against my will, against my reason, even the gross inferiority of your connections and the will of my friends and family. I beg you to relieve the torture of my heart and consent to be my wife.
Suffice it to say that Lizzie rejects his marriage proposal, appalled at his haughtiness. And it’s only later on, when she discovers that Mr. Darcy has performed a hidden act of kindness for her family following her sister Lydia’s scandalous elopement with Mr. Wickham that she finally can see beneath his pride and into his soul.
Pride & Prejudice, the most dialogue-driven of Austen’s novels, lends itself well to a stage adaptation. Price’s 130-minute production might not plumb all of the novel’s psychological depths, but it certainly is a satisfying theatrical experience that will keep theatergoers on their toes as they follow the love story between Lizzie and Mr. Darcy.
The Guildford Shakespeare Company production of Pride & Prejudice runs through June 29 at 59E59 Theaters (59 E. 59th St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday (with an added matinee June 11 at 2 p.m.); for tickets and more information, visit 59e59.org.
Play Adaptation: From Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice by Abigail Pickard Price, with Sarah Gobran and Matt Pinches
Director: Abigail Pickard Price
Set & Costumes: Neil Irish
Lighting: Mark Dymock
Sound: Matt Eaton
