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Writing for Us
A CurtainUp Review
Pride and Prejudice
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If you remain a good girl for the next twenty years, I’ll reconsider my position.—Mr. Bennet
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Marcus Dean Fuller and Victoria Mack
(Photo: Gerry Goodstein)
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Surely, the question of whether we should be enthralled and enraptured by such a transparent story of graces, manners and machinations among the twits and swains of 19th century English middle class society will be individually decided. Considering Austen’s gift for gab and the amount of it that is needed to propel very little action, tedium is occasionally held at bay by Monte’s fluid staging. Ballroom scenes, in which the rather large cast go through the motions of dances that are presumably variations on the Gavotte and Minuet are charming, as is the presence and perseverance of actors drawn into the entirely frivolous affair.
Whether or not you are drawn into the Austin oeuvre or Monte’s respectful if plodding, permutation of it, you can admire the set design by Michael Schweikardt. A huge framed beige countryside landscape drawn in the Asian style serves as a permanent backdrop. French windows that glide, period-appropriate parlor furnishings that can be re-arranged or carried off with dispatch, and even the obligatory chandeliers that mercifully come down slowly enough not to threaten anyone’s life, are deployed with finesse.
The emphasis is on the acting and the aggressive charm with which the company asserts its posturing and twittering. There is every reason to suspect that love is in the air from the outset. Foremost is the disapproval that Elizabeth Bennett (Victoria Mack) shows toward the aloof and disdainful Mr. Darcy (Marcus Dean Fuller). They maintain these fixed attitudes and characteristics for most of the play leaving one to look elsewhere for more unpredictable delights and diversions. Luckily Monte, with a little help from Austin, gives equal time to an array of fleetingly amusing peripheral characters, many of whom are members, extended and otherwise, of the Bennet family. Suffice it to say that misunderstandings, miscalculations, and misalliances keep popping up to affect their future and their fortunes.
The uniquely comical Monique Fowler, who scored so high earlier in the season in The Rivals, gets another opportunity to validate our most ingrained fears about recklessly pushy overbearing mothers. But she doesn’t in this case steal the thunder from Edmond Genest, as Mr. Bennet who, with self-assured authority, shows both love for his girls and an indefatigable sense of propriety. It takes a bit of concentration to keep tabs on Elizabeth’s four other sisters and their respective wooers, each of whom are respectively decorative, delightful, and handsome.
More easily entertainingly considered are Megan Irene Davis’ haughty and pervasively indignant Miss de Bourgh and Michael Stewart Allen, as the obnoxious Mr. Collins, the matrimony obsessed wheeling dealing cousin and heir to the Bennet estate. At the time, women could not inherit property. So all those daughters had to find husbands with property or end up destitute and/or deserted. Costume designer Kim Gill dresses the women mostly in beige (apparently the color de jour,) and provides the appropriate tight britches and jackets for the dashing heroes and the smart red coats for the young suitors in the militia. Pride and Prejudice is full of lovely First Impressions (the novel’s original title and also the title of the ill-fated 1959 musical version as adapted by Abe Burrows), but it is only in the final minutes of the play that those early impressions begin to resurface and almost convince us that it was time well spent.
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Pride and Prejudice
Adapted by Bonnie J. Monte from novel by Jane Austin Directed by Bonnie J. Monte Cast (in order of appearance): Mr. Bennet /Edmond Genest; Mrs. Bennet/ Monique Fowler; Elizabeth/ Victoria Mack; Kitty/Lucy, a maid Katelin Wilcox; Jane/ Nisi Sturgis; Mary /Saluda Camp; Lydia/ Gardner Reed; Lady Lucas & Mrs. Reynolds /Hanna Hayes; Sir William Lucas /Ashton Crosby; Mr. Bingley/ Sean Mahan; Miss Bingley /Alison Ostergaard; Mrs. Hurst/ & Miss de Bourgh/ Megan Irene Davis; Mr. Hurst/Captain Denny Paul Reisman; Mr. Darcy/ Marcus Dean Fuller; Charlotte Lucas/ Jessica Ires Morris; Maria Lucas & Georgiana Darcy /Elizabeth G. Wilson; Harriet Long &/Dorrie, a chamber maid/ Kersti Bryan; Colonel Forster&Servant/ Phil Brown; Colonel Fitzwilliam&Gentleman /Josh Carpenter; Mr. Blake& Servant /Jake O'Connor; Servant&Ensemble /Michael Striano; Mr. Collins /Michael Stewart Allen; Mr. Wickham /David Andrew Macdonald; Lady Catherine de Bourgh /Elizabeth Shepherd; Mrs. Gardiner& /Mrs. Hill./ Kathleen Rosamond Kelly; Mr. Gardiner /Joseph Costa Scenic Designer: Michael Schweikardt Costume Designer: Kim Gill Lighting Designer: Brenda Gray Sound Designer: Steven L. Beckel Choreographer: Cheryl E. Clark Running time: 3 hours 30 minutes including intermission Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, 36 Madison Ave, Madison, N.J. (located on the campus of Drew University) Box Office: 973 – 408 – 5600 or www.ShakespeareNJ.org Tickets: $28 - $50 Performances are Tuesdays through Sundays, October 17 through November 19, 2006. Review by Simon Saltzman based on opening night October 21, 2006. |
Easy-on-the budget super gift for yourself and your musical loving friends. Tons of gorgeous pictures.
Leonard Maltin's 2007 Movie Guide
At This Theater
Leonard Maltin's 2005 Movie Guide
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