"The silent
‘P’ in Pride and Prejudice," writes Myles Dungan, is
"property." Underlying much of the family drama and romantic endeavor both of
Jane Austen’s original novel and James Maxwell’s theatrical adaptation directed
by Alan Stanford is an early nineteenth century English concern with inheritance. The
story essentially involves the range of emotions experienced by The Bennets, a middle
class family with five daughters of marriageable age. Because the family estate will not
pass into the girls’ hands due to patrimonial legal bias, their mother (Susan
FitzGerald) is eager to see them attached to wealthy bachelors, preferably gentry. Their
successes and failures make up the bulk of the action, although the story is nominally
centered on the love-hate relationship which develops between second eldest daughter
Elizabeth (Justine Mitchell) and the disagreeable Mr. Darcy (Mark O’Halloran).
The key to interpreting Pride and Prejudice is in the reading
not of the trials and tribulations of Elizabeth and Darcy, but in how you respond to the
character of Mrs. Bennet. In this production, Susan FitzGerald (Therese Raquin) plays the
part with tremendous comic energy. She is gleefully avaricious, yet pitiably vulnerable,
driven to extremes by the inequities of the system. Her expressions of panic and relief
are funny because of their extremity, and she is sympathetic because of the position in
which she has been placed. This character can be simply annoying, or campy, but Brennan
achieves a fine balance in her performance complemented by Stanford’s direction which
makes it a touchstone for the entire production. Though amusing on the surface, the
interpretation of this character is a clear illustration that deeper issues are in play.
The brilliance of Austen’s writing is in her skill with situation.
She locates her characters firmly within a social milieu in which the odds are already
stacked against them, then confounds expectations with developments in plot drawn from a
keen sense of the gaps in the system. The characters themselves are also drawn from a
world with which Austen observed with a mixture of affection and anger. Her frustration is
not articulated through lengthy speeches laced with bitterness and indignation, but
through coherent, funny and clever storytelling.
The clarity in the writing, plotting, and characterization make Pride
and Prejudice an ideal prospect for theatrical adaptation. The Gate’s 2002
production is slickly produced, featuring a strong cast and clean production design. It is
directed with pace and rhythm. The mixture of large-scale ensemble scenes and more
intimate moments staged against Bruno Schwengl’s expansive set is never jarring. The
space is used very well to prevent the action from descending into observational minutiae.
Actors explore their character’s eccentricities not from one corner or another, but
in a range of movements. One of the cleverest of such scenes is Mr. Collins’ (Seán
Kearns) proposal to Elizabeth, which begins with his rehearsal to an empty chair to which
he makes numerous approaches before the lady’s arrival and ends with his fleeing the
stage in flustered embarrassment.
The production has been very well cast and almost all of the
performances (nineteen in all) are finely tuned to Stanford and Maxwell’s
interpretation of the story. Mitchell (Blithe
Spirit) makes an excellent Elizabeth. She demonstrates a strength of will and of
mind in voice and posture which makes an ideal vehicle for the proto-feminist elements of
the character, but is also able to turn that intelligence upon herself to portray
Elizabeth’s more vulnerable moments of self-realization. Though O’Halloran is
somewhat stiff as Darcy, it is in keeping with the character.
Alan Smyth (How
the Other Half Loves), is terrific as the equally perfidious Mr. Wickham. He
registers a scoundrel’s charm from his first appearance which makes this important
character work well. Barbara Brennan (Down
the Line, Lovers at Versailles)
exudes severity, snobbery and absolute self-assurance as the towering matriarch who seeks
to control the destinies of all around her. Bill Golding reprises his role as Mr. Bennet
from the 1994/95 production, and is a delight. His outwardly surly manner frequently gives
way to gestures and modulations of vocal tone which hint at the character’s deep love
for his family, and the actor plays every punchline with precision.
Stanford was criticized in some quarters for failing to bring out the
dark ironies at the heart of Blithe Spirit, and the director does sometimes
present efficient entertainments which yield little on closer reading. Pride and
Prejudice has enough inflection to sustain a more serious appraisal even though it is
clearly intended to engage summertime audiences with a familiar type of romantic period
drama. The play’s comic energies are derived from Austen’s judicious emotional
exaggerations and Stanford and his cast have found in them sufficient space to express the
story’s substance.
Dublin, June 19,
2002
- Harvey
O'Brien
