Exam season is upon us, so here’s a question. One critic praises Jane Austen’s novel for its “wit, irony, meticulous dissection of individual characters within a minutely observed social framework” – do you agree with her assessment? If you do, then check in your preconceptions with your jacket before you settle in for Simon Reade’s broad-stroke reworking under Tamara Harvey’s blustering direction.
Elizabeth Bennet’s first encounter with Darcy? She careers into him at a country dance and nearly knocks the bottle of beer from his hand. This Elizabeth is a stomping, frowning, eyes-cast-to-heaven creature. She is sometimes pert, when in company, but the intimate relationship with her sister Jane that allows psychologically intricate aspects of her character to appear has been slashed. In this she conforms to 21st-century sexist stereotypes of a “strong” female – tomboyish, punchy and self-centred. Darcy, here, is similarly two-dimensional: struttingly boorish until he suddenly falls in love with Elizabeth and becomes charming. Isabella Laughland (Elizabeth) and James Northcote (Darcy) are watchable, as are all the younger actors, although most lack the experience – and the diction - to boost their roles to full-blooded life.
If devoid of Austen decorum, the production does provide voguish, costumed, class snobbery; love affairs and broad comedy (hilarious turn from Michele Austin’s Mrs Bennet).
