Mirth and mavericks for a potted ‘Pride’

Published Apr 29, 2015

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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

DIRECTOR: Kseniya Filinova-Bruton

CAST: Hilda Cronje, Cameron Robertson, Matthew Roberts, Dominique Maher and Nathan Lynn

VENUE: Rosebank Theatre

UNTIL: May 23

RATING: ***

 

 

 

Fast-paced and funny, this two- act play plays with the edge of improv, but does so in a very much practiced and smooth manner. So everyone’s timing is spot-on (which is where the rehearsal part helped greatly), but it still carries a hint of “anything could happen” which stops you from assuming that you know what comes next.

Framed as a play within a play, the physical comedy gives us the kitchen staff of Pemberley Hall recounting how their master and mistress met. Drawn mostly word for word from Jane Austen’s novel, the delicious dialogue carries the charm of the original source material.

At the same time, the physical performances inject humour into what could have been a very staid and wordy affair.

Starting with some lusty singing down in the kitchen, we are introduced to our bored staff, who decide to mount a play. They act out the entire book, playing various characters and imaginatively using clever props to suggest other characters when they run out of real people.

They move furniture around the tiny stage to suggest the various places, turning the set changes into a delicious dance of tongue-in-cheek seriousness. This feeling of mirth just bubbling under everyone’s behaviour creates an air of expectancy – how will the person act out a scene you know is coming next?

Hilda Cronje and Cameron Robertson play only Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, with Cronje especially very clearly delineating her crudely mannered servant Emily from the more sophisticated Elizabeth. Playing her sister Jane, Dominique Maher creates the more reserved character who contrasts greatly with the haughty Lady Catherine. While Cronje uses her whole body as well as voice and accent to create her two different characters, Maher simply relies on a shrill and louder voice to create Lady C, so that’s not as real.

Robertson’s servant Edmund specifically gets given the role of Mr Darcy for being the one aloof to the other servants’ shenanigans, but he tackles the role with a bad grace that suits nicely.

Matthew Roberts has the most fun playing the most characters, using wigs and costumes to separate his Mr Bennet from Sir William Lucas and adopting the most ridiculous lisp for Mr Collins. His Edgar is the one who instigates the whole affair, while Nathan Lynn dons the Mrs Bennet dress with better humour and élan than his servant character Samuel suggests he would.

Every now and then someone deliberately fluffs a prop (like a wig) or steps back into their servant character to bring us back to their present, and the ending is perfect in its abruptness.

This potted Pride and Prejudice gives you all the highlights in a much more light-hearted manner than a staged version suggests.

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