Pride & Prejudice (sort of) Festival Theatre Edinburgh 22nd April 2025 Review
Pride and Prejudice (*sort of) is at The Festival Theatre Edinburgh this week (22-26 April) and if you are a fan of the words and the world of Jane Austen, and this now iconic romantic novel in particular, then be prepared for something very different. There is, I think, no middle ground with this production and this reimagining of the Bennet sisters, the house servants, and their world by Isobel McArthur (writer and director). You will either love or hate this show.
There are only a few ways that you can do a stage production like this. One is to stay close to the book and do a faithful historical costume drama, and that is perhaps the familiar ground upon which many people prefer to be standing. Another way is to be brave enough to throw all of that cosy and comfortable world away and do something that is totally unexpected. If you like the first option best, forget it here as this show is about as far away from that idyll as you can get, but do not let that put you off giving this “Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of)” world a try as you just might find the unexpected and unfamiliar as funny as this audience found this show tonight.
To be honest, I am not sure why I like this show so much as I am not a big fan of her romantic fantasy worlds and I do not often review comedy theatre. Something about this show though just works for me. Here all the main roles, including the male leads, are performed by a small cast of female performers on stage and the ludicrousness of that alone takes us into a chaotic world that is part pantomime and part extended Monty Python sketch. From the moment that that karaoke machine and microphone appear on stage and some classic songs somehow fit into this strange on-stage world, you know that this is Jane Austen, but not as we know it. These Bennet sisters, and their mother, are also not the shy, reserved and over polite models of early 1800s womanhood that you might expect.
This show/production itself is a bit of a theatrical fantasy as, despite its success on the West End of London’s stage and winning some major awards along the way, it has never lost its very Scottish theatrical origins and they were much in evidence tonight.
Taking us into chaotic world tonight was a cast including Isobel Donkin, Eleanor Kane, Rhianna McGreevy, Naomi Preston Low, Christine Steel, Susie Barrett, and Georgia May Firth. All were obviously enjoying the many comedic and outright farce opportunities that their multiple roles gave to them.
Underneath all of this humour, of course, is the dire plight of women in Britain before the “The Married Women's Property Act 1882”. It is this punitive legal state of women of the day that is one of the driving narratives of this production, as it is in the original novel.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
There are only a few ways that you can do a stage production like this. One is to stay close to the book and do a faithful historical costume drama, and that is perhaps the familiar ground upon which many people prefer to be standing. Another way is to be brave enough to throw all of that cosy and comfortable world away and do something that is totally unexpected. If you like the first option best, forget it here as this show is about as far away from that idyll as you can get, but do not let that put you off giving this “Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of)” world a try as you just might find the unexpected and unfamiliar as funny as this audience found this show tonight.
To be honest, I am not sure why I like this show so much as I am not a big fan of her romantic fantasy worlds and I do not often review comedy theatre. Something about this show though just works for me. Here all the main roles, including the male leads, are performed by a small cast of female performers on stage and the ludicrousness of that alone takes us into a chaotic world that is part pantomime and part extended Monty Python sketch. From the moment that that karaoke machine and microphone appear on stage and some classic songs somehow fit into this strange on-stage world, you know that this is Jane Austen, but not as we know it. These Bennet sisters, and their mother, are also not the shy, reserved and over polite models of early 1800s womanhood that you might expect.
This show/production itself is a bit of a theatrical fantasy as, despite its success on the West End of London’s stage and winning some major awards along the way, it has never lost its very Scottish theatrical origins and they were much in evidence tonight.
Taking us into chaotic world tonight was a cast including Isobel Donkin, Eleanor Kane, Rhianna McGreevy, Naomi Preston Low, Christine Steel, Susie Barrett, and Georgia May Firth. All were obviously enjoying the many comedic and outright farce opportunities that their multiple roles gave to them.
Underneath all of this humour, of course, is the dire plight of women in Britain before the “The Married Women's Property Act 1882”. It is this punitive legal state of women of the day that is one of the driving narratives of this production, as it is in the original novel.
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com