In Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of), five female actors – Emma Rose Creaner, Eleanor Kane, Rhianna McGreevy, Naomi Preston Low and Christine Steel – rotate through the roles of the story.Mihaela Bodlovic/Supplied
Title: Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of)
Written by: Isobel McArthur, after Jane Austen
Performed by: Emma Rose Creaner, Eleanor Kane, Rhianna McGreevy, Naomi Preston Low, Christine Steel
Directed by: Isobel McArthur
Company: Mirvish Productions
Venue: CAA Theatre
City: Toronto
Year: Runs to Aug. 17
It’s the summer of Jane Austen in Southwestern Ontario: From Pride and Prejudice at London’s Grand Theatre this spring to the continuing Sense and Sensibility in Stratford, it seems the region can’t get enough of the Regency era.
In Toronto, a familiar favourite has made its return from across the pond: Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of), the Olivier Award-winning, unabashedly raunchy parody of Austen’s most famous swooner. The literary spoof last played in Toronto at the tail end of 2023 to significant critical and audience acclaim. While I didn’t see it that time around, I sure heard about the strange, hilarious not-musical that remixed literature with bawdy karaoke performances to tremendous, Fringe-show-on-stilts effect.
Believe the hype. Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) is a delight – a fresh take on Austen’s writing that manages to enchant diehard fans without alienating newcomers to the material. Five female actors (Emma Rose Creaner, Eleanor Kane, Rhianna McGreevy, Naomi Preston Low and Christine Steel) rotate through the roles of the story, within a somewhat flimsy frame narrative that sees the servants of the Bennet and Bingley households reclaim the limelight from their employers. “Without us, there’d be no story,” they quip, toilet plungers in hand, teapots in tow.
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The real fun begins when the women start re-enacting the beats of Austen’s novel – the will-they-won’t-they agony of the romance between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, set against a backdrop of existential financial woes for the Bennet family. Clever overdresses and coats designed by Ana Inés Jabares-Pita make it easy for the cast to thumb through their characters, needing only to pull on a sleeve or a hat to become someone else entirely. (Throughout the production, the actors also don grungy Doc Marten boots, adding a youthful edge to the whole affair.)
The humour ranges from sophisticated to stupid, from highbrow critiques of the English aristocracy to sillier non sequiturs about popular British snacks. Isobel McArthur, the work’s writer as well as its director, brilliantly keeps the wheels of this goofy world spinning, and not once does a recurring gag become overtired. (I’m still in stitches thinking about how McArthur chooses to represent Mr. Bennet onstage – it’s too good a joke to ruin here.)
That said, I do wonder if the piece actually needs its karaoke breaks – the digressions into pop songs that make the play feel like a conceptual sister to Titaníque – but a payoff at the end of the show involving the littlest Bennet sister (played with Phoebe Waller-Bridge-esque folly by the brilliant Kane) just about justifies that choice.
As well, the show hasn’t been updated for a Canadian audience. Several cultural and culinary references to U.K. staples flew over the heads of the opening night audience, leaving awkward silences that are clearly filled with laughs when the show is performed back home.
But these are extremely minor gripes for a show as inventive as it is funny, a delightful night at the theatre that never feels its two-and-a-half-hour runtime. While the entire cast is uniformly strong, Rhianna McGreevy is particularly memorable as Mr. Darcy; Creaner, too, is a standout in her various roles.
McArthur’s play is a testament to the staying power of Austen – and despite its tendency to go a touch off the rails, the show is impressive in its restraint. Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) masterfully avoids feeling like an insular book club, where the jokes are only funny if you’ve read the text or seen one of the film adaptations. There are no references to Matthew Macfadyen or Keira Knightley, and no winks or nudges at Austen’s more scholarly legacy. Truly, it’s fun for everyone and anyone, and well worth checking out at the CAA Theatre before the tea and crumpets get cold.