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PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
More information about the play:
Wit and fervor abound in Joe Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan’s new
adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, a glorious period romance that
will have your heart racing. Published during the Regency period
of England in 1813, Austen’s tale is awash with the intrigues
of love, passion and the perils of courtship. The five Bennet sisters
have been raised to have one purpose in life: to find a husband.
After a wealthy bachelor takes up residence in a nearby estate, the
girls prepare for parties and dancing, while Mrs. Bennet dreams of
suitors for her daughters. When the passionate and witty Elizabeth
Bennet meets the new neighbor’s best friend, the taciturn Mr.
Darcy, misunderstandings and miscommunications flourish and the sparks
fly!
Milwaukee Rep Literary Director Kristin Crouch grabbed a few moments
with Director J.R. Sullivan to talk about the process of adapting
Jane Austen’s classic novel to the stage.
Kristin Crouch: The works of Jane Austen have been read and adapted
for almost two hundred years. Recent film and TV adaptations of Pride
and Prejudice have been hugely popular, including the BBC’s
1995 television miniseries starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle,
as well as the 2005 film starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen.
Also, a number of other films, such as Bridget Jones’s Diary
(2001) and Bride and Prejudice (2004), were directly inspired by
Austen’s novel. What draws you towards the world of Jane Austen,
and what do you think audiences will find particularly appealing
in this story?
J.R. Sullivan: Well, there is hardly a better love story written
than this elegant, funny, sharply-observed and richly-rendered novel
by Jane Austen. What draws us to the story, I think, is the very
thing that matters most: as readers, or as playgoers and filmgoers,
we find truth in the characters, humor in their all-too-recognizable
behavior in situations – dilemmas sometimes of their own making
and sometimes not – and appreciation of their observations
of themselves, especially heroine Elizabeth Bennet. And there is
joy, true happiness in fulfillment, in this story’s conclusion.
I have to say, and I don’t think this is from an unrepentant
romantic, that I never tire of such a story as Pride and Prejudice,
a story of the trials, missteps and misunderstandings on a path to
love. It is a triumph over circumstances that would scuttle joy,
a fulfillment of the happy end most of us hold close as ‘always
possible.’
KC: It’s not possible or even practical to retain everything
we enjoy from the book when creating an adaptation for the stage
or screen. Each of the film/TV versions has highlighted different
aspects of the story. Which particular themes, characters or situations
does this adaptation highlight?
JS: The novel is extremely well-suited to film to be sure. The 1995
BBC version – as a five-part miniseries – was able to
present much of the book as plotted, while the equally excellent
Keira Knightley version succeeded in cinematically compressing great
sections of the book with breathtaking visual story-telling and a
really remarkable use of the camera by its director.
Our version focuses on Elizabeth and Darcy’s story, which starts
in misunderstandings born of first impressions. We tell the tale
over the passage of a year, just as the novel does, and we try to
highlight in staging the effect of that year in the Hertfordshire
countryside as Elizabeth and Darcy find their way back to one another.
It takes a year to learn about yourself, and to realize the extent
of your own mistakes. We also attempt to put as much light on the
Bennet family as we can, and the pressure on the daughters to marry
well . . . that is, into economic circumstances that will protect
and support them in the future.
KC: Austen pays strict attention to the rules of social decorum and
etiquette among members of high society. How do you think these features
of life in Regency England still resonate with modern American audiences
today?
JS: There’s a form to every social encounter, I think. In Pride
and Prejudice, the initial social contacts occur at balls and dances,
or family parties, arranged so young men and women might encounter
one another and begin the social dance that may conclude in marriage.
But I think there is always a “dance” in courtship, always
a give and then take, a set of rules more or less mutually understood
in the dance of flirtation. We have all used them, and used them
to find a little safety in the interaction, a social construct to
help our vulnerable hearts along, so to speak, in the great chance
of love.
KC: The experience of reading a novel is very different from watching
a piece of living theater. Jane Austen’s novels tend to be
full of narration and lots of letters. A character might ponder their
inner thoughts and not say a word to anyone else for pages – how
did you go about transforming the literary and descriptive features
of the novel into more immediate and dramatic situations for the
stage?
JS: Yes, there are many letters, a form that was becoming very popular
to the novel in Austen’s day. There are some who believe that
the novel – which had an earlier version on Jane’s writing
desk called “First Impressions” – was entirely
epistolary in form. Joe Hanreddy and I agreed from the beginning
of our collaboration on this that we would not use narrator’s
voices in a presentational manner – as is often done with novels
adapted to the stage – and that we would limit the letters
as best we could, turning those communications into dialogue exchanges
with dramatic stakes and intensifying circumstances. Time will tell
if we succeed in that or not.
KC: Can you give us a sneak peek about any parts of the story that
you are particularly looking forward to rehearsing?
JS: Well, I have to say that I absolutely love the family that Jane
Austen gave us in the Bennets. All of them, from Mr. Bennet’s
detachment to Mrs. Bennet’s comic – and heroic – efforts
to get her girls well matched, and the fantastic distinction among
the five girls: Jane’s modesty, Mary’s pedagogical inclinations,
the wild energy of Kitty and Lydia, and of course, Elizabeth Bennet.
She is one of a kind, ingeniously created, witty, unusually self-aware
and discovers a deeper self in the mystery and glory of the kind
of love one dreams of – lasting and true.
Kristin Crouch, Literary Director
The Rep in Depth
Join us for The Rep In Depth, our lively informative half-hour talk
which starts 45 minutes before every performance in the Quadracci
Powerhouse Theater. Rep Resident Acting Company Member Laura Gordon
will be leading this Rep in Depth.
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