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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Women in love Austen style
Lizzie, Lizzie Crow and the play's wrong 'un, George Wickham, played by Andrew Bowden Pride and Prejudice
Swan Theatre Amateur Company
Swan Theatre, Worcester
**** JANE Austen’s much loved tale of the
social mores of Regency England is perhaps the earliest example of chick
lit. It might be more society in the counties than sex
in the city but it is still very much a female dominated corner in what
was a man’s world as the five Bennet sisters are herded by their less
refined mother towards suitable – for suitable read wealthy and
landowning – suitors. The result is a
wonderful study in the manners and morals, matchmaking and even
parenting in the early 19th
century which, allied to a good romance, is part of the book’s enduring
appeal. The tale is a simple one. Mr and Mrs Bennet, with
their small estate, have five daughters and, as is the way in the world
of country gentlemen of that time, their role in life is to read, play
the pianoforte, visit friends and relatives and marry well. The concept
of work or indeed any form of employment is an alien concept. When young, rich, eligible Mr Bingley arrives
from the North (how one hopes it was Bradford) Mrs Bennet’s world is all
a flutter as she sets her sights on him as a husband for . . . well any
of her daughters really. And when it is discovered he has brought his
friend Mr Darcy, who is more handsome, equally eligible and even richer,
the Bennet marriage machine goes into overdrive. The story centres on second daughter Elizabeth,
Lizzie, played by Lizzie Crow, daughter of director Tim Crow
incidentally, who has a wonderfully quality to her voice and lovely
enunciation, giving us a believable, headstrong daughter who knows her
own mind – not a common trait among the Regency daughters of the landed
gentry. Indeed the whole Bennet family are believable
with Michelle Whitfield wonderful as Mrs Bennet whose views on men
change in an instant depending upon their current level of
marriageability. She flaps around the stage like a clucking mother hen
with any man with wealth and a pulse regarded as potential wedding
fodder. Then there is the more demure Jane, the eldest,
in old maid territory at 22 when the play opens. Played with a quiet
assurance by Teresa Passmore, she is the beauty of the Bennets, closest
to Lizzie, and the Mary, played by Lizzy Read, a student at
Worcester Sixth Form College, is supposedly the plainest of the sisters
and the bookish one, with a tedious comment on any event or situation,
which produces a gentle humour at her primness. Fitzwilliam Darcy played by Chris Read, and Lizzy The youngest are Kitty, played by Rebekah Gill,
who is taking A-Level drama at Royal Grammar School, Worcester, and
Lydia, played by Poppy Cooksey-Heyfron. The duo give us a pair of giggly teenagers with
Lydia, 15 when the play opens, the leader of the younger sisters, always
leading her older sister astray. She is a girl whose main pastime seems
to be flirting with the officers of the regiment staying in the
vicinity. Patriarch is STAC regular Keith Thompson as Mr
Bennet, the father who leaves Mrs Bennet to deal with the pressing
matter of marrying off his daughters, daughters he indulges,
particularly Elizabeth, yet does little to protect them from uncertain
futures. His property is inherited but is entailed, it ca only pass to
male heirs, and with five daughters . . . his family face eviction upon
his death. Thompson is a larger than life character who
fills a stage giving another excellent STAC performance. On Bennet’s
death the property will pass to his cousin the Rev William Collins, a
fawning, pompous, prat, played with lovely humour by another STAC
regular Ian Mason. He tries for Lizzie and when that fails marries
her less demanding friend Charolotte, played by Cora Jackson. The main men in the lives of the Bennet girls are
closer to hand though with Lewis Jones giving a pleasing performance as
Charles Bingley while Chris Read is a quiet, if not quite brooding,
Fitzwilliam Darcy. As always in matters of the heart, there has to
be trials and tribulations, with Bingley unintentionally ignoring Jane
for much of the play and Darcy at first disliked, almost hated for his
apparent standoffish arrogance, then despised for his supposed past
cruelty and finally vindicated in the all live happily ever after bit at
the end. And there has to be a baddie, in this case, the
rake of the piece, George Wickham played by student Andrew Bowden, whose
charming veneer masks a lying, scheming, reprobate beneath although the
script hardly gives him the chance to develop that and we are left with
hearsay as to his dastardly character.
Making up the cast is Jenny Dowse the housekeeper
at Darcy’s Derbyshire estate, Pemberley. Transferring Austen’s novel to the stage has long
been a challenge. Film a
STAC have done well with a simple set designed by
Peter Read with just a matter of a curtain to hide stage rear for the
Bennet house which opens to reveal suspended stately home window frames
and a backlit wall for Bingley’s Netherfield Park and Darcy’s Pemberley. The stage adaptation by the late Brian J Burton,
international playwright and a life member of STAC, is very episodic
with the lovely recorded voice of professional actor Olivia Lumley
filling in the narrative and linking the scenes as furniture is moved
and actors appear and disappear in a short blackout. The problem with lots of scenes is there is a
danger of becoming bitty and losing any rhythm. The voiceovers alleviate
that to a large extent although the links on opening night could have
been snappier, particularly in terms of lighting the next scene. It was a first night though and with a hired
theatre there is a limited time to rehearse technicals, so no doubt a
full run through will have ironed out that minor hiccup otherwise Andrew
Dunkley’s lighting was all it should be. A mention to for costumes, under Joanna Crow,
which looked authentic with a variety of tops and overskirts adding
variety to dresses for the women and jackets off and on ringing the
changes for men. Choreographer Judith Holden also pitches in with
a period Regency dance for 12 of the characters at a Netherfield ball.
Not one that is likely to catch on among the clubbers, mind, but it
certainly looked the part. Director Tim Crow keeps up a good pace, and
brings out plenty of humour both in the dialogue and visually, with
little, knowing glances from particularly Mr Bennet and Lizzie, and the
little trips and foibles of Mr Collins. Crow has also done well to keep the majority of
the characters within a reasonable age range of Austen’s original,
particularly the women which is often a difficulty for amateur groups.
All in all it is a most pleasing evening’s diversion as Lizzie might
have said. To 09-05-15 Roger Clarke
05-05-15 |
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most romantic as she falls headlong for Mr Bingley.
nd
television, with their ability to change scenes, costumes, seasons or
whatever in an instant, and, in TV’s case, the advantage of several
hours over several episodes to tell the tale, have it easy by
comparison.