Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) - Oxford Playhouse

THIS year is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Jane Austen and, judging by this touring production of Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) at the Oxford Playhouse, the birthday celebrations are going to be irreverent, raucous and witty. 

Not very Jane Austen, you may think, except for the witty part. But Austen is a much tougher author than people give her credit for, and well able to survive anything thrown at her. Writer and director Isabel McArthur’s take on the most popular of the novels is both radical and affectionate. 

We see things at first from the point of five women in plain period dresses who are mopping and dusting a grand staircase in a mansion. Austen’s novels focus on the middle and upper class. We’re reminded that all their comfort depended on an unseen army of mostly female servants. 

And then we’re off as this overlooked, underpaid, overworked fivesome tog up in colourful costumes and proceed to act out – and sing about – the romances and setbacks that unfold in Pride and Prejudice. Playing well over a dozen characters between them, male and female, they take on the famous roles of Mrs Bennet, her many daughters, Mr Darcy, Mr Bingley, Mr Collins etc. 
Mr Bennet, usually seen as a kindly but distant figure, is here reduced to the back of an armchair, the tip of a newspaper and an occasional puff of pipe smoke. 

But for all that it’s a masculine world. As someone observes: “Young men do as they please.” Mrs Bennet’s desperation to marry her daughters is partly a survival tactic. Without a wealthy man to protect her/them, she may forfeit her house on her husband’s death. 

There are some knowing nods to more traditional interpretations of Austen. Darcy is asked at one point why he isn’t wearing wet clothes, a reference to the famous Colin-Firth-in-a-lake scene. Elsewhere it’s completely untraditional, complete with the f-word and a dumpster labelled Jane Aust Bin. Quite a bit of Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) plays out as homage to Seventies disco, and the show closes with the ensemble belting out Young Hearts Run Free. On his first appearance Darcy is the target of a rendition of Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain. The grand Lady Catherine de Bourgh commands a performance of Lady in Red as penned by family member Chris de Burgh. 

Rhianna McCreevy does an excellent job as both a loud-mouthed Mrs B and the snobbish Mr Darcy, while Isobel Donkin impersonates the swaggering Bingley brother and sister with zest. Others in the cast switch from role to role with mischievous energy and their enjoyment communicates to a very receptive audience. 

Philip Gooden