12 – 19 February
It was St Valentine’s Day, so how appropriate to see a performance of the greatest rom-com of them all! Directed by Jenny Stephens, an infectious sense of fun pervades this fast-paced and thoroughly enjoyable Bristol Old Vic Theatre School’s production of Pride And Prejudice. Hazel McIntosh’s simple, uncluttered set makes clever use of a number of movable white boxes that contain costumes and props, thus enabling rapid scene changes, and the audience is sat on three sides and up close to the action, so there is an immediacy that quickly engages one in all the frantic excitement that besets the Bennet family.
This was my first visit to the creative space called The Mount Without, set in what was the old church at the bottom of St Michael’s Hill. The building has been very successfully refurbished, and it makes for a fascinating venue, but at this time of the year it is a little chilly so the blankets issued at the interval were very welcome.
From the very start of the play, we can see that Mr Bennet, hiding behind his newspaper or hidden away in his study, has long retreated from any involvement in his neurotic wife’s plans to get their five daughters married. He is portrayed with drily sardonic detachment by Bill Caple, while foolish Mrs Bennet is played with gusto by Rebecca Hyde. She may frequently wallow in noisy self-pity, but she has a youthful coquettishness that makes her less tiresome than some versions of Mrs Bennet that I’ve seen.
When we first meet the five Bennet sisters they are dressed identically in virginal white, but their distinct personalities are quickly revealed. Lydia, the youngest, is portrayed by Carlie Diamond as a flirtatious, doe-eyed little romantic airhead, unable to take her eyes off tall blond Mr Wickham (Tom Mordell) in his bright red military uniform. Camilla Aiko’s Kitty is also a stranger to emotional restraint, expressing any disappointment with a deafening howl of tearful frustration. In stark contrast, Mary is usually silent except for those occasions when, unbidden, she offers some solemn moral homily, duly ignored by one and all. With a fixed expression of stern concentration, Tanvi Virmani succeeds in making Mary’s intense seriousness intensely funny.
Played very charmingly by Rhea Norwood, sweet-tempered, self-effacing Jane is seen to be a little too quick to resign herself to life’s setbacks. Her diffidence is echoed in Joe Edgar’s portrayal of Mr Bingley, who conveys his sheer decency in a very attractive fashion. Eve Pereira is a wholly convincing Elizabeth Bennet, with her sharply delivered, intelligent repartee not entirely hiding an inner emotional sensitivity. She is well matched by Shivam Pallana’s Darcy. Tall, dark, and distant, his aloofness disguises a shyness shared with his best friend, Bingley. When we first meet Darcy, I would have liked to have seen more emphasis given to his tendency to be haughtily disapproving. At the ball, his judgemental comments about the Bennet family were rather lost amid all the bustle and noise of the dancing. Things are much quieter in the later scene at Pemberley, where Elizabeth is admiring Darcy’s portrait, only for it to come to life to reveal the man himself. Their hesitant, heartfelt declarations of affection are delivered very touchingly.
This production has many memorable moments, but the very best is the confrontation between Elizabeth and Lady Catherine De Bourgh. In a surprising piece of casting, but one that pays off handsomely, Lady Catherine is played by a male actor, Taylor Uttley. In other scenes he gives a comic touch to his portrayal of this snobbish aristocrat, but here he plays her straight, and to formidable effect. In this scene Eve Pereira is equally impressive, vividly conveying Elizabeth’s hurt and simmering anger.
Among other the roles, I particularly liked Josh Penrose as the oleaginous and grossly self-important Mr Collins, a man blissfully unaware of his own absurdity. And Ruby Ward is very touching as the pragmatic, fatalistic Charlotte, who cheerfully accepts a marriage proposal from the awful Mr Collins, rather than be faced with a life of poverty and spinsterhood.
Phoebe Cook is a lively, assertive Caroline Bingley, and it would have been good to have spent a little longer with Anna-Sophia Tutton’s mellifluously voiced Mrs Gardner, but her role, as with some others, is a little too briefly realised. Simon Reade’s adaptation of Pride And Prejudice condenses Jane Austen’s plot into a mere two-and-a-quarter hours, so inevitably all the key events are presented in too rapid a fashion for there to be a slow build up of tension in the will-they, won’t-they story of Elizabeth’s relationship with Mr Darcy. Similarly, the crisis created by Lydia’s scandalous elopement with Mr Wickham is seemingly resolved in the blink of an eye, so we have no time to ponder on the disastrous consequences that could ensue from her reckless behaviour. So, this is not a version of Pride And Prejudice that invites us to dwell on the social issues that the original novel so cleverly satirises, but no matter, for it is great fun.
★★★★☆ Mike Whitton 15th February
