Jane Austin’s masterpiece Pride and Prejudice adapted by Simon Reade comes gracefully waltzing in to Birmingham Rep’s main house. A classic story of love and comedy that has stood the test of time, Pride and Prejudice is set around the Bennet family; Mr Bennet, his wife and their five beautiful but unique daughters and their quest to find suitable husbands. Simon Reade’s adaptation has brought forward all the qualities of the book yet brought a new edge to this classic.
The play mainly focuses around the second eldest daughter, Miss Elizabeth Bennet, a wild young woman who speaks very plainly about how she feels in situations. Tafline Steen’s performance as Elizabeth is outstanding, perfectly playing the balance of a young lady on the edge of womanhood, seamlessly blending the mature with the childish to create a very likeable character.
Elizabeth’s love interest Mr Darcy played by Benjamin Dilloway is a formal man whose pride and valour gets in the way of their romance. Dilloway strives to get away from the conceited vision of Mr Darcy that the 2005 film portrayed, and achieves this, making Darcy a much more realistic character instead of the traditional 2-D version of a love interest.
Yet Elizabeth is also in the sights of affection by the slimy Mr Collins (Steven Mao) much to her distaste. Steven Mao’s performance of Mr Collins lacked conviction, as a plain sighted joker it worked however, it almost felt lazy. The laughs came to easy almost becoming unnatural because of the overtop exaggeration of Mao’s performance.
However, the spot light is stolen by the hilarious couple, Mr and Mrs Bennet (Mathew Kelly and Felicity Montagu) whose witty rapport bounces off each other with such ease that it seems to come almost as second nature to them both. The moments of pure hilarity definitely came from the rambunctious Mrs Bennet (Montagu) whose moments of anxious rants sent laughter through the audience.
The story Pride and Prejudice goes through so many stately manors and lavish outside gardens that it sometimes can be a struggle for set designers, however Max Jones set is beautifully simplistic, a rotating platform and an intricate iron fence to separate the outside from the inside makes this piece stand out.
This production of Pride and Prejudice relies on outstanding acting performances to carry it though, yet this seems to almost diminish some of the fairy tale like style to this story that fans of the book may crave. Yet as its own outright production it has brought this classic story to the new generation of Mr Darcy lovers. ★★★★☆ Georgina Randall 9th November 2016
