Writer: Jane Austen
Adapter: Kate Hamill
Director: Lotte Wakeham
Kate Hamill is comparatively little known here, but in the United States she is one of the most performed playwrights (every year since 2017) and a successful actor. Frequently her plays are adaptations of 19th century novels and she herself often takes leading roles: Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. In a programme interview her regard for Jane Austen shines through, as does her feeling that they share the same kind of sensibility, but one is brought up short by her statement, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen it as a farce before.”
It’s difficult to tell how much is Hamill’s text and how much is Lotte Wakeham’s presentation of characters, but a farce it is, not so much because of farcical situations, but because of grotesquely comical overplaying by certain actors. It is, like all good farces, a scream – literally when Joanna Holden’s hyperactive Mrs Bennet is on stage. Given Austen’s original, it must be difficult to overplay Mrs Bennet or the nauseatingly unctuous Mr Collins, but Holden and Ben Fensome manage it.
Hamill’s version sticks close to a much abbreviated version of Austen, with a few items of furniture which are wittily whizzed around between scenes. Sonum Batra’s music is another decided plus, adding a touch of subtlety which only a few actors are encouraged to copy.
Dyfrig Morris is a conventional Mr Bennet, the casting obviously having something to do with contrasting his bulk with the diminutive Joanna Holden. Unaccountably he also plays the downtrodden Anne De Bourgh, looking something like a yeti and mouthing subversive comments from behind his veil. Mary Bennet is similarly monosyllabic and always on the brink of a breakdown, so it’s nice that Eve Pereira gets a chance to be sweet and charming as Mr Bingley.
It’s difficult to see on what basis characters were marked down for caricature, apart from Lady Catherine de Bourgh, a bulldozer of a performance by Jessica Ellis who also plays Lydia as an uncontrollable drunk. Partly it’s in the interest of presenting the two eldest Bennet sisters as adrift in a world of caricatures, Kiara Nicole Pillai a sharp contrast to them as a snobbish Caroline Bingley and a meekly self-seeking Charlotte Lucas.
And that leaves Lizzie, Darcy and Jane who are presented as relatively normal human beings. Aamira Challenger is attractively understated as Jane while Rosa Hesmondhalgh is the voice of sanity as Lizzie, increasingly bold and assertive as the second half progresses. As for Darcy, James Sheldon is less of a snob than usual and more awkward in the presence of strangers and his and Lizzie’s stuttering approach to the final embrace is a most satisfying end to a very odd evening.
The actors all bring huge verve to the performance, but too often one is left wondering at the latest grotesquerie.
Runs until 26th July 2025, before continuing on tour
