Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) – Criterion Theatre

(L-R) Meghan Tyler, Hannah Jarrett-Scott, Isobel McArthur, Tori Burgess and Christina Gordon in Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) at the Criterion Theatre, London. Picture: Matt Crockett

Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) continues at the Criterion Theatre, London until 17 April 2022.

Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

There is a huge post-pandemic appetite at present for shows which are upbeat and funny. And Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) ticks all the boxes.

Told from the point of view of five sassy servants (who rarely get a mention in Austen’s 1813 novel), this is a hilarious romp through the plot with karaoke as the linking arch. It manages to be both irreverent and affectionate.

The five actors, all female and several of them actor-musicians, play all the parts as servants dressing up to tell a story. At times their costume changes happen at make-you-gasp (and laugh) speed – Brian Rix and co would have been hard put to beat it.

High-spots include Isobel McArthur (who wrote this show and co-directed with Simon Harvey) as Mrs Bennet – much more down to earth than usual and fond of a drink when it all gets too much. Her sultry, deep-voiced, unsmiling Darcy – given to striking poses – is quite something too.

Hannah Jarrett-Scott’s work here is outstanding. She plays both Charles Bingley and his sister beautifully along with poor Charlotte Lucas who, in this version, has the hots for Elizabeth (Meghan Tyler), but settles dourly for the appalling Mr Collins (Tori Burgess).

Jarrett-Scott has an impressive range of voices, a well honed gift for comic timing and very expressive body language. She also gives us a few bars on trumpet – along with piano and guitar work at other times.

Tyler’s Elizabeth is Irish, frothy, perceptive and blunt. And she exudes fun as well as horror – at the marriage proposals she gets from Collins and Darcy, for example.

Burgess, another very versatile actor, delights as bookish, bespectacled Mary whom no one will allow to sing, frothy shallow Lydia and – best of all – as the most repugnant, whining-voiced Collins I have ever seen.

And then there’s Christina Gordon’s ill-treated, heartbroken Jane (the scene on horseback is comic genius) and a charismatically louche, lying George Wickham among other roles. Fun too, that as well as playing piano for several numbers she also uses a Welsh harp which I don’t think I’ve seen an actor-muso do before.

Much of the humour comes from using language which would not have been usual among women in respectable Regency houses and from silly out-of-period details like servants in rubber gloves, paper hats and Quality Street at Christmas or Pringles at the ball.

Of course they all sing beautifully too – lots of numbers or parts of numbers which are familiar to the audience who get swept along by the sheer fizz of it all.

Austen is a comic writer – a waspishly, sardonic ironist. And that’s what this show brings out in spades. And as for the people in the audience at the performance I saw, who clearly were new to this story – and gasped in delight at the plot twists – it worked brilliantly for them too.

As a former English teacher I know Pride and Prejudice as well as I know my own back garden and I think this show – born at Tron Theatre, Glasgow in 2017 – is a fabulous tribute to, not to mention commentary on, the novel.  So it’s good to see it in London at last.

Susan Elkin