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
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