BWW Reviews: APT's Superb PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Reveals Gender Parity

First published more than 200 years ago, Jane Austen's famous novel Pride and Prejudice comes to American Players Theatre (APT) and revisits significant gender issues audiences might assume have been resolved. Former Milwaukee Reperatory Theater Artistic Director Joseph Hanreddy and acclaimed J.R. Sullivan adapted one of the world's most popular novels into a compelling, senstive stage play that breathes life into Austen's romantic couples who search for their uncertain futures on Spring Green's Up the Hill stage this summer.

Set in early 19th century England--Hertfordshire to be exact--where the play begins, seven white washed, bentwood chairs and a pianoforte on the upper stage level envision the story's multiple settings in minmal, understated elegance courtesy of Scenic Designer Nayna Ramey. Costume Designer Susan E. Mickey complements this utter simplicity by only a change of outer cloaks or a shawl for many of Austen's characters, inlcuding the five Bennett sisters who wrestle with discovering their fortune and future amid the stuffy English class conventions..

Heading a large cast of more than 20 actors, Sarah Day and James Ridge (Mr. and Mrs. Bennet), Laura Rook and Nate Burger (Jane Bennet and Mr. Bingley), and the centerpiece to the production Kelsey Brennan and Marcus Truschinski (Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy), present the familiar characters with riveting clarity while they all struggle with their peculiar foibles, their particular prides and prejudices.

In a tribute to this outstanding cast, which also includes Chirs Klopatek's religious if soically awkward Mr. Collins, Deborah Staples' regal Caroline Bingley and Tracy Michelle Arnold's haughty Lady Catherine De Bourgh, each member plays a key role in making this production an utter delight. The particular magic in any APT performance remains that superb actors inhabit major and minor roles within a singular season--and so even minimal characters in a evening's perfromance heighten the excellence, the thrill in every production.

On this night, Brain Mani and Colleen Madden radiate a tender warmth playing Elizabeth's Uncle and Aunt Gardiner--as does Cristina Panfilio in the role of the realistic Charlotte Lucas, who is consdiered an old maid in her late 20's, and marries the Reverand Collins. Or Jeb Burris' handsome Mr. Wickham, who ultimately destroys the wavering innocence of the headstrong Lydia Bennet, Melisa Pereyra. Every actor presents a distinct pleasure to watch on stage in this or any APT performance.

A critical element to Austen's novel and in the play maintains Darcy and Lizzie must be equally matched in chemistry and wit. Truschinski's tall, dark Darcy clad in a long, royal blue colored coat melts sufficiently in his emotions for the independent yet caring, and also beautiful, Kelsey Brennan's Lizziie. When Darcy leaps down the steps from Mr. Bennet's office to claim his bride-to-be at the end of the performance, theatrical magic occurs. The moment solidfies what Austen hoped for in her novel. The happy ending which initiates a happy beginning for a new family, a marriage of equals formed, a coupling where "the liveliness of your mind made me love you more." The man, who as Austen says, "knew what a treasure she [the woman] was."

British-American Director Tyne Rafaeli debuts at APT offering a stark perceptibility infused into Austen's words on scoial customs and class, which portrays the masculine and feminine with equal compassion and strength. Another young English actress and woman, Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame, addresses Austen's themes in contemporary terms in her 2015 address to the United Nations.

In her speech, Watson christened HeForShe, an organization professing gender equality, where men and women can strive to be themselves, who they are, human. Women, neither seen solely for their sexual attributes or perhpas inferiority, or men, who must hide their emotions and nurturing abilibites to attain success and money to make a living. Watson calls for men to support women, boys to support girls, and believes, "Gender inequaity has a huge inpact all over the world...one of the biggest contributors to poverty, violence, and discrimmination...which hinders development and progress."

Austen's Bennet women would have been reduced to poverty had their father died, nor did women have any means of financial support due to lack of formal education or training, similar to other countries in today's world. Men were often approached and beleived to be the only means to a future, security and wealth through marriage, which stilll lingers today. Contemporary inequality in pay, the stigma of the single divorced or unwed women, and men perceived as the breadwinner continues while women often tend to cleaning and the children, even though many women now work outside the house. However, women and children certainly define the largest percentage of humans living in poverty thorughout the modern world.

In Pride and Prejudice, middle and upper classes collide, a place where Jane and Bingley, both kind and sincere, contrast Darcy and Elizabeth battle of hearts and minds. Yet, each couple conttributes to what Austen illustrates and Watson claims for realistic feminitity and masculiinity: "We need the yin and yang...we need the balance."

This stunning APT production reminds the audience why Pride and Prejudice remains one of the world's most beloved novels with a relevance that resonates through 21st century headlines, The constant forces of yin and yang, feminine and masculine, humanity's prides and prejudices towards the opposite sex and social classes can be celebrated in gender/social parity. The theme especially displayed in the vulnerability, the inate humaness Dacy and Lizzie finally discover in each other----A sensational ending to a Pride and Prejudice audiences will treasure all year.

American Players Theatre presents Pride and Prejudice at the Up the Hill Theatre in Spring Green throughout the summer. For further information, performance schedule or tickets, please call 608.588.2361 or visit ameericanplayers.org.

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