Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) Review - Criterion Theatre

I'll be the first to admit that when someone said we were getting another version of the seminal Jane Austen classic in London, my first reaction was (like the legendary Brenda from Bristol): not another one?!

But I definitely eat my words having seen Isobel McArthur's revolutionary reinvention of Pride and Prejudice (sort of!)

Five female household staff members decide to take centre stage and tell the well-known tale in their own way - think 39 Steps meets Downton but with a bit of Catherine Tate's Nan thrown in for good measure. It feels familiar to begin with in the fact that you feel like you know where it's going, with quick costume changes galore, but it's the moment that they begin to sing that this piece cements itself as something entirely new, and that's down to McArthur's fabulous script. The entire Austen novel is in there, but by having her characters belt out At Last and Young Hearts Run Free she gives them room to breathe in a way that a standard play would not. After all, when talking isn't enough to express emotion, you sing...

The five women in this show are all exceptionally hard working. I've said it before and I'll say it again: multi-rollng is one of the hardest skills for an actor to perfect, and the precision with which they have to execute this show is so exact, it's like they're balancing on a knife the whole time, as it could at any point go wrong - and that's THRILLING as an audience member. 

All five women are superb in their respective roles, but a special shout-out has to go to both Hannah Jarrett-Scott (as the whole Bingley family and an incredibly touching Charlotte Lucas) and McArthur herself, who's performance as Mr Darcy is that rare thing in theatre: you manage to simultaneously loathe the man but are willing for him and Miss Bennett to get together (yes thank you Jane Austen for the foundation, but also thamk you Isobel McArthur for building on it so brilliantly). 

It's a real shame that Plan B covid restrictions, and the rapid movement of the Omicron variant caused this production to close at the beginning of February as it's a perfect entry point into theatre who don't think theatre is for them. Audience numbers dropped across the country so significantly that that producers were left with no choice but to cut their loses and finish early. As expected, once things began to calm down a little, the theatre has been packed every night, with too few seats to get in everyone who wanted to see it before it finished.  

With plans for an extensive UK tour starting in Edinburgh in September and a return to the West End too, I can only hope that the show will receive audiences for many performances to come like the one it got on its final show - because it deserves it. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐

February 2022

Criterion Theatre, London 

A Number @ Old Vic Review

When announcing their upcoming season, it seemed practical for The Old Vic to be doing a number shows with small casts (they previously had Camp Sigfreid over the summer with Luke Thallon and Patsy Ferran): with Covid very much still crippling the theatre industry (and the world), there are less people to have to worry about than in a big scale production like their annual A Christmas Carol. 

But there's real merit in the version of Caryl Churchill's superb A Number that goes way beyond logistics. 

It's a semi-futuristic take on a father having multiple sons thanks to the wonders of human cloning (remember Dolly the sheep? Well imagine they got that on an even bigger scale...) and his relationships with all of his children. Director Lyndsey Turner's production feels incredible timeless, in the fact that this house has been plucked out of time and is being presented 'nowhere'. Designer Es Devlin's set is flooded by red (a nod to blood and family ties perhaps) and it helps to create a truly unsettling feeling before the piece has even begun. 

Considering its previous iterations have attracted pairings like Michael Gambon/Daniel Craig and Roger Allan/Colin Morgan (the latter of which was concluding it's run just as theatres closed in March 2020), it's obvious that it takes real talent to tackle this material, but Turner's cast are more than up to the task. 

I May Destroy You's Paapa Essiedu has arguably the harder role, in the fact that he plays all the versions of the son who has been cloned - both against his will and without his knowledge.  Essiedu gets three distinctive roles to get his teeth into - a real gift to any actor - and does so excellently. With his characters running the fully gammit from shy and anxious to ferocious and vengeful, he is able to put all his skills to great use and really draw in the audience - his delivery of the word 'Daddy' over and over again rung in my ears long after I left the theatre. 

Yet, it is The Walking Dead's Lennie James who's stoic take on Salter that ultimately wins him the evening (if such a thing can be done in a two-handed). 

In his encounters with the different versions of his son, Salter is offered the chance many father's long for: the chance to get it right. He is given the opportunity to divulge as much or as little information as he likes, able to gage the reactions from the version he is presented with. It faces the audience with a very real moral situation: children really are the product of their parents decisions, and should they be privy to everything about them or should some things remain a mystery? The continuity in James' performance is clear yet sporadically chilling, with the audience able to watch him make the same mistakes over and over again but for what he believes are good reasons - something any watching father will undoubtedly be able to relate to. As a pair, Essiedu and James are electric, dynamic and, most importantly, believable - there isn't a moment that you question the relationships aren't genuine. 

Few writers works are revived and still relevant in the frequency that Churchill's work is, indeed this production marks the fifth major UK production of this piece since its creation in 2002. It's good to question why that is and the answer seems clear: no matter when her work is produced, it means something different. That's the beauty of a piece as meticulously crafted as A Number: with a running time of just 65 minutes, Churchill knows what every single word means and why, and yet certain moments play different dependant on when it's revived - the laughs would not have been the same in 2002, just like they will not be same in 2042. But it's ageless quality means that it will endure the changing world and continue to speak to an audience on a basic level for years to come: what does it mean to be a parent, and how do you ensure that your child does not make the same mistakes you did?

The answer? Who knows - just keep trying to do what you think is best. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

February 2022

The Old Vic, London