Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

An affectionate exercise in comic sabotage: Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) reviewed

Plus: there’s rampant sexism but no accompanying outrage on stage at Southwark Playhouse

Excellent comedians: Tori Burgess, Isobel McArthur, Hannah Jarrett-Scott, Christina Gordon and Meghan Tyler in Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of). Credit ©Matt Crockett 
issue 13 November 2021

Let’s be honest. Jane Austen is popular because War and Peace doesn’t fit inside a handbag. Austen’s best-loved novel, Pride and Prejudice, has been updated in a fetching new production that treats the sacred text as a screwball comedy.

The fun starts before curtain-up with the cast of five girls messing about on stage and struggling with a chandelier that almost shatters but doesn’t.

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Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

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