AD | Tickets gifted in exchange of an honest review
Direct from its triumph in the West End where it won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy, Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) is a unique and audacious retelling of Jane Austen’s most iconic love story, by writer and director Isobel McArthur. Men, money and microphones will be fought over in this irreverent but affectionate adaptation where the stakes couldn’t be higher when it comes to romance.
One of the things that I enjoyed the most about this show was director Isobel McArthur's preshow elements, where the cast were interacting with the audience, as well as each other, to make it seem like they were cleaning the set before the show officially started. This created a nice ambience to help set the scene for the start of the first act, also highlighting some of the banter that occurred throughout the show.
The set, by Set & Costume Designer Ana Inés Jabares-Pita is quite minimal, but works perfectly for the show, with there being a use of additional set pieces to ensure there are differences between all of the scenes.
The cast is made up of 5 female characters, with this performance starring Emma Rose Creaner, Eleanor Kane, Rhianna McGreevy, Naomi Preston Low and Christine Steel. All of the performers worked well as a cast, presenting the relationships between the families well, and also changing between different characters successfully. The comedic timing between them all was also good within the show, making the audience laugh out loud, especially with the incorporation of a more modern score, taken into a more suitable fashion for the period in which Pride and Prejudice is initially set in. The changing of the songs as well as the various different characters within the show was a strength of the show, however it did get confusing at times, which brought down the overall flow of the show at times.
Additionally, there were volume issues provided with the fact that handheld mics were used, but only for certain sections of the show, so for most of the show, there is fluctuation of how much you can and can’t hear, which can cause issues, especially if you’re watching the show in a larger venue, as the audio might not be perfect. Despite this though, the handheld mics worked well for the singing aspects of the show.
Overall, as a show, it suits well to be on the stage, with a strong women based cast at its helm. Despite there being a few minor flaws within the show, there are many different highlights which outweigh these, and make the production a good educator for people of all ages, as well as making it a good night out for the whole family.
★★★.5
Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) is playing at The Lowry until the 22nd March and continues its tour until 14th June.
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