Peter Viney's Blog

By Isobel MacArthur
After Jane Austen

Directed by Simon Harvey
Design by Ana Ines Jabares-Pita
Musical Supervision by Michael John McCarthy

ON TOUR

Chichester Festival Theatre
Thursday 23rd February 2023, 14.30

CAST
Lucy Gray
Dannie Harris
Leah Jamieson
(Emmy Stonelake)
Megan Louise Wilson
Ruth Brotherton
(Laura Soper)

Jane Austen as source material is going through a popular run. We had Laura Wade’s The Watsons (link to review) based on one unfinished novel, and Andrew Davies TV series Sanditon based on another. Some reviews thought The Watsons superior to this play. Sanditon exhausted the Austen plot by the end of episode one of series one (of three), but Davies was inspired by her characters and setting. The review of The Watsons sets out my views on the Austen industry.

This is completely different. The approach to ‘the first rom-com’ (programme note) is via the servants who only make fleeting appearances in Austen. The cast are the female servants in white shifts who dress up (well, mainly just waist up) as the characters in the story, playing multiple characters (except Elizabeth Bennett). I heartily approve – we come from a rural poor background ourselves so these are our ancestors.

The logistics must be designed for the long tour … stretching from Truro to Inverness, and lasting until June this year. It’s like a ballet company set up in that there are seven cast members listed in the programme, but only five appear in the play. That is, they include understudying as being a full cast member, so it’s not so much understudying as taking it in turns. Ballet companies do it because strains and minor injuries are so frequent. This is a highly intensive tour, with long travel on Sundays, so it must be set up to cover eventualities. Brackets on the cast list show which two were resting this afternoon. However as the costume changes are extremely rapid – servant to Lydia to Mr Collins, for example – I assume that even if you have velcro on costumes, you really need a dresser / dressers in the wings. The stagecraft is impeccable.

It causes problems with illustration here – the photos online have more elaborate costumes, and different cast members too. The photos are Lyceum Edinburgh with a cast list of six, all of them different, and include the writer Isobel McArthur.

The ensemble work is so smooth it’s hard to believe they’re switching about. They’re reluctant to say who does what in the programme. I’m assuming most people know the rough character list of the novel, and they manage to get it virtually all in, bar a minor character or three. I admit I read the synopsis in my daughter’s old A level Cliff Notes before the play to remind myself, and if it’s been a few years since you read it or saw the TV dramatisation, it’s a good idea – look online at Wiki or Spark Notes Character List. It really helps to remember a two line character synopsis for the principle roles. I want to avoid joke spoilers too. I will note roughly what the characters played are on this performance (don’t castigate me if I get some wrong). A note on the doors stated that Ruth Brotherton is playing Effie in today’s performance. Online suggests that role is usually Emmy Stonelake. If the servants are named, it’s only peripherally so ‘Effie’ didn’t tell us much. She played the servant who dresses up / interchanges as Elizabeth Bennett. No others were noted. The online notes suggest that the role which changes ids Elizabeth Bennett.

Lucy Gray played Mr Bingley, Miss Bingley, Charlotte Lucas
Dannie Harris played Mrs Bennett (the mother) and Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy.
Leah Jamieson played Lydia Bennett, Mary Bennett, Mrs Gardiner and Mr Collins the clergyman who is going to inherit everything if a Bennett daughter fails to find a husband.
Megan Louise Wilson played Jane Bennett, Lady De Bourgh, Charles Wickham
Ruth Brotherton played Elizabeth Bennett

All of them also play servants at very frequent intervals. We also get piano (Lucy), guitar (Megan) and flute and saxophone (Dannie). Manly strides, Effing and blinding adds to the fun. There’s a marvellous ‘Colin Firth reference.’

Karaoke singing is a major feature, with aptly chosen songs appearing in the right places It’s notable that classics of the 60s to 80s dominate. I’ve noted this before where found songs are used. They are not credited in the programme which manages to list four stills photographer and the press agent. Is it that they want the songs to come as a surprise with their aptness? That doesn’t stop musicals from listing songs in the programme, and the Watermill Theatre, similarly using found songs for humour, always lists them in the programme. I don’t whether I should list them here. The existence of Lady De Bourgh as a character inevitably leads to her ‘nephew Christopher’s greatest hit.’ Carly Simon’s best-known song is perfectly placed. Even if they don’t list the song titles, I think Elvis Costello, Gerry Goffin & Carole King, Carly Simon, Lowman Pauling and Ralph Bass (as performed by the Mamas & Papas), Jim Steinman & Dean Pitchford (as performed by Bonnie Tyler), David Crawford (as performed by Candi Staton) , Labi Siffre (as performed by Madness) Mack Gordon & Harry Warren (as performed by Etta James) … all deserve a credit AND I’ve avoided song titles.

The last couple of years a couple of particularly ‘woke’ national reviewers have a blanket objection to comic regional accents. I know friends who hate to see ‘woke’ used pejoratively, but you can’t fight language change, and it is now overwhelmingly a negative word. Sorry. I spent so many years wanting regional accents instead of Advanced RP that I love humour from accents. Mrs Bennett is brimming with Brummy. Mr Collins is mournfully Midlands. Lydia is laconic Liverpool. It works.

On Chichester’s huge open thrust stage, the touring set was (as always) perched in the centre of a much larger area. I was impressed that the actors stepped out of it onto the larger areas and used entrances from the auditorium. That’s a hard task when the next theatre might be a tight proscenium stage.

I can understand why some think it just a smidgeon lesser than Mrs Watson as a theatrical experience. Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) definitely five star as entertainment, performance, stagecraft, with a very funny script. There is a tiny difference. I’ll go for four and three quarters then. (An eighth off for not crediting songwriters!)

**** 3/4

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

These are based on 2022 productions at Bristol Old Vic / The Lyceum Ednburgh, NOT the 2023 tour. The cast is completely different.

5 star
Patrick Marmion, Daily Mail *****
Domenic Cavendish, The Telegraph *****
Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman, *****
David Benedict, Variety *****
What’s On Stage *****

4 star
Arifa Akbar, The Guardian ****
Sam Marlowe, The i ****
Domenic Maxwell, The Times ****

3 star
Clive Davis, The Times ***
Andrzej Lukowski, Time Out ***