14 – 19 April
In Pride And Prejudice* (*sort of) the genteel restraint of Jane Austen gives way to banging boom-box karaoke delivered by five feisty servant girls who re-enact the events of the original novel with irreverent, energetic abandon. The result subverts the comfortable class and gender-based assumptions of the original novel, but this is no angry piece of agit-prop. Instead, it is a very funny and boisterously choreographed musical homage, with any subversion done in a joyously good-humoured fashion.
Having first seen the light of day in 2018 at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre, writer Isobel McArthur’s show has gone from strength to strength, garnering co-production support from, amongst others, Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, Birmingham Repertory, Bristol Old Vic and Oxford Playhouse. It makes a welcome return to Bath Theatre Royal in a new iteration directed by McArthur, with an attractive set and costumes designed by Ana Inés Jabares-Pita.
From the get-go it is clear we are in a below-stairs milieu, with the servant girls busily going about various cleaning tasks, or engaging cheekily with the audience – there is no fourth wall here. When they realise the coast is clear they begin to tell the familiar story, though their language is frequently fruitier than Austen would have used. Much of the fun comes from the skilful, lightning-swift costume changes, as each servant adopts a new character to portray. Rhianna McGreevy as ‘Flo’ makes the most of the sharp contrast between the blowsy, rough-tongued vulgarity of Mrs Bennet and the frozen haughtiness of Fitzwilliam Darcy. When Darcy first encounters ‘Effie’ (Naomi Preston Low) as Elizabeth Bennet she shows how quickly she has the measure of him with a marvellously apt rendition of Carly Simon’s Your So Vain. Throughout the show the choice of songs is wittily appropriate, though linking ‘Clara’ (Christine Steel) as the formidable Lady Catherine de Burgh with Lady In Red might be thought a little groan-inducing.
Among other pleasures is the aplomb with which ‘Tillie’ (Emma Rose Creaner) manages to play both Charles Bingley and his sister Miss Bingley, and Charlotte Lucas, each character clearly defined, with Miss Bingley being a particularly riotous creation. Last night the fifth servant, ‘Anne,’ was played by Susie Barrett, whose portrayals of a weirdly awkward Mr Collins and a frumpily studious Mary Bennet were comic highlights. The infuriatingly passive Mr Bennet, refusing to share his harassed wife’s desperation at their daughters’ failure to find husbands, is represented solely by an armchair with its back to the audience, only the top of his newspaper visible – a clever touch, typical of the inventiveness of the whole show.
Could it be a little harder hitting in tone? Austen’s novel is set in a world of ruthlessly rigid social hierarchy, rampant misogyny, constant wars with the French, and a great deal of wealth having been created through slavery. But Pride And Prejudice* (*sort of) is more concerned with having fun than it is with making serious points, and it succeeds in doing so triumphantly. It is rather refreshing, I must admit, to hear Elizabeth Bennet tell Fitzwilliam Darcy to f*** off!
★★★★☆ Mike Whitton, 15 April 2025
Photography credit: Mihaela Bodlovic
