My dearest Vancouver Arts Review reader,
It is with much alacrity that I write to tell you about the recent developments at the great house of Pemberley. It’s been two years since Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet put aside their pride and their prejudice to discover their mutual admiration for one another. You’ll recall that their wedding was the finest Derbyshire has ever seen.
To celebrate Michaelmas this year, the Darcy’s have invited the Bennet’s, and Mr Darcy’s auspicious cousins, the de Bourgh’s, to Pemberley. Jane and Bingley are as insufferably agreeable as ever, and Lydia, of course not one to miss a party, is here with her usual boisterous impropriety. But the real light of the party is the middle Bennet girl – Mary. One finds Mary is much improved. She remains bookish, and a little too ostentatious on the piano forte to be becoming of a young lady but gone is the pious sermonising, replaced with a sparkling wit. There is more than a touch of a young Lizzy Bennet in Mary’s new countenance.
But I haven’t told you the best of it: If I’m not mistaken our prudish young Mary holds a distinct admiration for the learned Lord Arthur de Bourgh. Lord Arthur has recently come in to a handsome fortune and is set to inherit the grand Rosings Park estate. So you can see it would be a fine match for Mary, a felicitous match indeed. Although I’m afraid Lord Arthur is rather ill equipped to handle all the extra attention his new found wealth has solicited, especially from certain expectant relations. Poor Lord Arthur, he is so easily flustered and he does risk losing Mary’s affections if he does not show some strength of character soon. Well now you see, this michaelmas is proving to be quite the spectacle, is it not?
Yours pretentiously,
MG
Phew, now that’s out of my system….
“Miss Bennet Christmas at Pemberley” is a charming homage to Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”. Written in 2016 by American playwrights Laura Gunderson and Margot Melcon, it’s proven very popular with companies looking for a piece that ticks all the right Christmas boxes. It’s a nostalgic, jolly romp with witty dialogue surrounding a sentimental core. The plot (rather indulgently described above) is comfortingly predictable with romance and a central message of enduring familial love. It’s a risky move recasting much loved characters in new works, as you run the risk of creating trite, knock offs of the originals. Thankfully that does not happen here. These well worn characters have been sincerely translated by people who seem to have a real affection for Austen’s work. However it is a Christmas play and like everything at Christmas, it is about as subtle as a fat man dressed in red attempting to squeezing down a chimney. These are worthy caricatures of Ms Austen’s originals but don’t go expecting the cool and deliciously cutting subtext of the books. As a Christmas show, it is self consciously hammy with lines delivered with Pantomimic flare.
The other hurdle when re-imagining treasured characters is that every reader will have their own personal interpretation of their favourite. My Lizzy for example, was not the one portrayed on stage, although Darcy (played by Chris Walters) was a very charming approximation. It’s an easier task to manipulate the peripheral characters, who aren’t as entrenched in the hearts of fans. Mary for example, (played by Kate Dion-Richard) was a delight. She’s inelegant and awkward yet spunky and quick-witted. Knowledge is her armour against a world which rewards only feminine beauty and compliance. Arthur De Bourg, a new invention as Darcy’s bumbling, nerdy cousin (played by Matthew MacDonald Bain), was equally endearing.
Whether or not the characters precisely match preconceptions, true Janeites will still relish this opportunity to spend a little extra time with Lizzy, Darcy and their kin. For everyone else “Miss Bennet, Christmas at Pemberley” is like a mug of spicy mulled wine; comforting, warming and sweet. At any other time of the year it would be too much but at Christmas, it’s perfect.
Get your tickets here!
– MG