It’s clear enough what you are going to get with David Kerby-Kendall’s riff on Jane Austen’s classic novel. Examining the literary canon is a perennial pursuit, and applying a queer perspective has been popular for a while. But while Darcy and Bingley running off together doesn’t seem as radical as it might once have done (which is good news, of course), there’s still the question of whether this effort is any good?
Kerby-Kendall has a neat move – which is to focus on Elizabeth Bennet. It turns out she’s more radical than Austen could probably have imagined, and Darcy agrees with her revolutionary ideas. They are each other’s allies. The strategy maintains the couple as our heroes and gives Sophie Bloor and Michael Gillette, who take the roles, plenty to do. And it’s a relief that Austen’s heroine is, somehow, preserved.
A touch ironically, Darcy and Elizabeth still make a good couple. And their chemistry is matched by that of Noah Butt and Sophie Bradley, who play a diminished Bingley and Jane Bennet – it seems their characters are genuinely in love, which sets up a poignancy that could have been exploited more. When closer to the original source material, the action is fine, plot points are picked out well and the piece has potential. But problems arrive.
After the interval, the piece loses its way to the extent of becoming confusing. There’s the suggestion that Darcy and Bingley are going to marry the women and only go for “walks” together. But they can’t keep their hands off one another and are discovered! Don’t worry. After the briefest mention of eternal damnation, it turns out that the Bennets are all darling liberals who decide to forgive and stay friends. It’s all society’s fault, after all, so Jane bakes a cake with two grooms on it.
The trouble is twofold. Firstly, the (small) anxiety the characters experience manifests as preachy and laboured (Gillette is the only one who manages to make speeches about equality sound anywhere near natural). While no prejudice is admirable, it also means no drama. And then there’s a problem with the wit. I’ll go for the one about opening a hostelry for men and calling it Persuasion. But the humour is chaotic, and too many jokes fail to take the period nature of the piece into account. That Mr and Mrs Bennet just aren’t funny is confirmation something is wrong: we move from laughing at their silly old-fashioned ways to enduring random bons mots and knowing gags that characters themselves wouldn’t understand.
Of course, Kerby-Kendall isn’t trying to be historically accurate. Pride comes first and he wants to avoid a fall in the mood. The project is closer to a fairy tale – which is fine – but such retellings should be joyous rather than didactic and clunky. Luke Fredericks’ direction is slow and the fussy set doesn’t help. There are some good ideas here but, regrettably, they are poorly executed.
Until 2 November 2024
Photo by Lucy Nixon
