This adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic romcom begin with its famous opening sentence as April Hughes’s Elizabeth Bennet narrates her story, and most of the dialogue is Austen’s own text, for though it scampers rapidly through its telling and necessarily concentrates on the main plot to pack it into just over two hours, it stays very true to the original. It does so with theatrical flourish.
Abigail Pickard Price’s production (seen earlier this year in Guildford) now reaches the West End’s studio theatre with the same three actors playing 17 roles between them.
Designer Neil Irish now sets the action in front of a wall of aged mirrors that, multiplying the dancers in Austen’s Georgian balls and oil paintings, appear to identify locations. He supplies costumes that slip easily on for quick changes as actors transform from one character to another: a change of a hair ribbon or sash instantly makes them a different sister, or they may hold a hat to represent their dance partner. There is never any doubt as to whom they have become, and the skilled cooperation involved is a joy to watch and adds its own humour.
Mr Bennet and his wife have seven daughters; can they all find husbands? In a world where status and property are so important, what chance do these girls have of making a good match? There is wealthy new neighbour Mr Bingley, his good-looking friend rich Mr Darcy, though he seems pretty stuck-up, dashing military man Mr Wickham and clergyman Mr Collins (who is due to inherit the Bennet home when Mr Bennet dies, which could mean they will be turfed out). There are attractions, not necessarily mutual, proposals, rejections, an elopement that here become a fast-moving story without losing the raised eyebrows of Austen’s acerbic invention.
April Hughes is a lively, intelligent Elizabeth Bennet, full of sparkle, occasionally slipping on a frock coat to become Mr Bingley. Sarah Gobran plays her sister Jane, who catches Bingley’s eye, her friend Charlotte, aunt Mrs Gardiner and her mother, all very different, and her Mrs Bennet is very broadly drawn, a little too common: she does seem an odd match for Luke Barton’s gentle Mr Bennet, but perhaps giving birth to seven daughters can’t have been easy.
Luke Barton plays even more roles. He’s not only kindly Mr Bennet, an urbane and elegant Darcy, flashy Wickham and sober clergyman Collins but Elizabeth’s sister Lydia, Mrs Reynolds and, in a stately transformation, Darcy’s aunt Lady Catherine. That is a striking achievement, for, apart from his hauteur as Lady Catherine, he adds no obvious character quirks yet makes them all very different living people.
The flow of the production and the bold presentation of the character transformations add an extra layer of pleasure to the well-known story. It is clearly told for those not already familiar with it, though newcomers may need to pay particular attention immediately after the interval to keep abreast of what has happened.