Theatre Review: Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice
24/2/24 Buchanan Lecture Theatre, St Andrews
Directed by Lara Thain and Kilda Kennedy
Produced by Bethan Chalmers and Carolina Atlee
Written by Kate Hamill (adapted from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)
Review by Noor Zohdy
Chaos, delight, comedy, and love come together all at once in the Mermaids Production of Pride and Prejudice. The play is full of exuberance and humour and meets the stage in just the Austinian way: a clumsy, imperfect, and heartwarming story of love, hope, a myriad of misunderstandings, and luckily found happy endings.
Among the play’s highlights was the performance of Mackenzie Galbraith as Mr Collins, Mr Wickham, and Miss Bingley. Resolutely tripping over his words with the sheer ridiculousness of Collins, trotting around with the comic air of Wickham, and obsequiously fawning upon Mr Darcy (Danny Spiezo) with the irony of Miss Bingley, Galbraith was essential to the play’s humour, theatricality, and flair. Henry Huron as Lydia Bennet and Lady Catherine de Bough was, too, brilliantly done. Lady Catherine de Bough became entirely formidable and preposterous all at once ─ precisely as Austen would want it. Ava as Mrs Bennet was another one of the play’s great successes. Her performance made the play an experience ever-brimming with hilarity and that wonderful, unmistakable spirit of the ridiculous. Her ironic adversary was entertainingly done by Emily Shoker. The exuberant digressions of Mary Bennet by Teah LeBlanc were done with just the right bursts of melodrama that further captured the story in all its discordant and chaotic splendour.
Laura Bennie made the perfect Elizabeth Bennet. Drawing together the tumbling humour and heartfelt grace of the play, she performed with perfect ease, creating an undeniably real heroine, awkward, loving, resolute, and completely genuine from start to finish. Her dear friendship with Jane Bennet, a lovely performance by Ella Pernet, was delicately done. As Mr Darcy, Danny Spiezo was remarkable. Despite his famous pride, he created a Darcy of earnestness, vulnerability, and heartfelt boyishness. His friend, Mr Bingley by Aki was humorous and adorable.
From Lizzie’s emerald dress, just rightly suited to her the beauty and sincerity of her disposition, to Mary’s dour funerary style, heightening the theatrical comedy of her performance, the costumes by Bella Hirst were wonderfully and creatively done.
With its bright moments of comedy balanced by its quiet, touching quality, the play was never quite one thing: always dashing from one moment, one emotion, one word to the next, it was captivating, exciting, and a flurry throughout. Simply, perhaps a perfect portrait of being in love.
