Pride & Prejudice – Octagon Theatre, Bolton

Writer: Jane Austen adapted by Kate Hamill

Director: Lotte Wakeham

It is a truth universally acknowledged that staging an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice on a modest budget gives rise to all sorts of challenges.

Director Lotte Wakeham’s production at Octagon Theatre is determined by practicalities. There is an acceptance it is just not possible to replicate extravagant balls and grand houses on an intimate stage. As some members of the cast play more than one role Louie Whitemore’s costumes are designed to be easy to change of out quickly rather than be lavish. There is a comedic benefit to this approach; the supposedly frail Anne de Bourgh is portrayed by Dyfrig Morris as a gauze-covered monosyllabic Goliath. Whitemore’s stage set is likewise utilitarian, simple props allowing rapid scene changes.

Kate Hamill’s script makes some character revisions. Elizabeth Bennet is something of a substitute for author Jane Austen speaking the famous opening line of the novel and introducing the rest of the family. Lydia Bennet is not as shallow and self-obsessed as in the novel but more a vulgar booze bucket who, in act two, shows a surprisingly calculating and vindictive side. But although the adaptation is faithful to the plot of the novel there is a definite shift towards comedy with cheerful innuendos (‘’ Can I touch your musket?’’) and physical gags.

Director Wakeham pushes the comedy to the maximum at times nudging towards pantomime. In a storming, crowd-pleasing performance Joanna Holden goes right over the top and plays Mrs Bennet at full screech, hilarious but exhausting. The antagonism between the reluctant lovers is not just expressed verbally – Darcy greets a rain-drenched Elizabeth by disapprovingly putting paper down to prevent her dripping on the carpet. Wakeham certainly knows how to give the audience what they want – managing, against expectations, to stage the most memorable (for female viewers at any rate) scene from the BBC adaptation of the novel.

With so many comic ideas squeezed into the show the shift towards drama in act two is jerky. There is tragedy in the scene where Lydia Bennet realises, far from entitling her to look down on her unmarried sisters; her hasty marriage has effectively exiled her from polite society and, more significantly, her family. The confrontation /proposal scene between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy is played straight rather than for laughs and will satisfy any fan of romantic conflict.

In a nice touch the cast adopt soft Yorkshire accents. The doubling up of roles allows the cast to cut loose with comedy. Ben Fensome is restrained as Mr Wickham but has a very good time as the repellent and self-regarding Mr Collins, preening and treating the stage as if it is his personal pulpit. Jessica Ellis and Joanna Holden are almost a double act as, respectively Lydia Bennet and Mrs Bennet, egging each other on to increasingly embarrassing behaviour. Eve Pereira is both a gentle Mr Bingley and a morbid Wednesday Addams-style Mary Bennet.

James Sheldon accepts Mr Darcy is the straight man in the relationship with Elizabeth and gamely endures being the butt of physical comedy, drenched in booze and constantly entering at the embarrassing point of any conversation. Rosa Hesmondhalgh is a wonderful heroine, interpreting Elizabeth as someone who sees herself as the sole standard of decency and common sense and reduced to apoplexy by the antics of her family and stuttering, hand-wringing frustration by her growing attraction to Darcy.

Although the inclusion of so many ideas makes Pride & Prejudice uneven the cheeky comedic approach brings an intoxicating freshness to a classic story that would otherwise have been over-familiar and stale.

5^th to 28 June 2025