Pride and Prejudice

This iconic story originally written and set in the early 1800s  was superbly brought to life by Nadya Henwood, who directed the action and adapted the plot for the stage. A very wordy script very clearly gave us the lives and thoughts of the Bennet family and their neighbours and friends. The scenery team made an excellent task of transforming the stage into a country house lounge, with the mouldings on the walls, candle holders and other appropriate furnishings in the locations it was portraying.    Costumes, as clothing was in those times, were smart, neat, frilly and flowery as the occasion demanded.

In the Bennet family were Mrs Bennet (Vinny Shepherd), a mother who was determined to find her daughters as good a husband as she could, bearing in mind their particular standing in society, Mr Bennet  (Nigel Peacock) the father and five daughters. Mrs Bennet provided us with some good-hearted humour throughout whilst Mr Bennet quietly went about his role as husband and provider for his family.  All the family involved were well cast an enacted their parts with conviction. The four daughters in this adaptation were Elizabeth (Tash Mills), the one around whom the story is based, Jane (Beth Tolhurst) an older sister and Lydia and Kitty (Sophie Clark and Keziah Croucher), being two younger siblings. They all interacted naturally with one another. A friend of the family, Charlotte Lucas (Sara Spencer) was also involved with their discussions about marriage and their future.

The four gentlemen who are romantically involved with the Bennet sisters and Charlotte are Fitzwilliam Darcy (Aaron Ost), Charles Bingley  (Sam New), William Collins (Zahir White) and the not so gentlemanly George Wickham (Rhys Bloy). These four all had very different characteristics and these were played to the full by the accredited actors.

Two more related and important people were Darcy’s aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Eileen Coan) - a very forceful lady who knew her own mind and was quite immovable in her opinions - not a person to have to negotiate with. Caroline Bingley (Carrie Salisbury), Charles Bingley’s sister was the other relative.

This is the first pre-1900s play that I have seen for a very long time and apart from the acting, staging, scenery and technical side which excelled, it made such a welcome change for once in a while not to hear of murders, mental health problems, distress, swearing and the problems of our modern society. I just sat back and enjoyed a couple of hours of thoroughly delightful theatre. Congratulations to all involved with the production.

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