Jane Austen's classic gets 'a fresh perspective' in Pride & Prejudice (*sort of) at Chichester Festival Theatre | Review

Colin Firth’s dip in the pond may be the most memorable, but over the years this tale in particular has been reimagined in multiple genres; Elizabeth Darcy née Bennett becomes a proto-Marple in murder mystery Death Comes to Pemberley, and bane of the undead in the horror-inflected Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

When it comes to theatre adaptations however, it feels there is some catching up to do: and this is where Isobel McArthur’s playful reimagining comes in. The Olivier Award winner stays largely faithful to the plot of the novel, which sees the feisty heroine meet her match in the apparently frosty and snobbish Mr Darcy.

But how it is delivered takes many liberties. For a start, every character is played here by a cast of five women, who also double as a Greek chorus of housemaids that poke fun at the archaic social norms portrayed in the novel.

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This merging of old and new extends to the snacks the characters eat – Pringles, Frosties, Quality Street – in contrast to their Regency gowns and the use of a karaoke machine and modern pop songs to drive the narrative. You’re So Vain is used as a fitting put down of Darcy by Elizabeth, and others include Bonnie Tyler’s I Need a Hero and Candi Staton’s disco classic Young Hearts Run Free.

The dialogue and characterisations are modernised too – received pronunciation is replaced with a variety of regional accents and curse words abound. This is used to greatest comedic effect with Mrs Bennet, played by Dannie Harris, whose Essex twang makes her a dead ringer for Pam from Gavin and Stacey.

My main bugbear was with the karaoke conceit, which felt a bit undercooked: the cast are clearly actors first and foremost, and I would have liked them to have characterised their singing as much as they did with their speaking voices.

That being said, this production – in the spirit of all good adaptations – remains faithful to the original text while bringing a fresh perspective. I approve this Austen spin-off.

Until February 25.