Review: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (SORT OF), King's Theatre

Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort of) is a retelling of the Jane Austen classic written by Isobel Mcarthur. The show opened at the Tron Theatre in 2018 to rave reviews and has since toured the UK and won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy Play with its West End run.

The play opens with five women who you'll definitely know but might not be able to place. They're the staff who are present in every Jane Austen novel and keep things in order for the drama to take place. They hear and see everything that goes on in the home and are therefore the perfect narrators for the story. The Bennett family have five daughters and under current law none of them are able to inherit when their father dies and along with their mother, they will be left destitute unless one marries a man who can inherit. Mrs Bennett is frantically searching for eligible men to ensure that they don't lose everything.

Featuring the original 2018 cast, each actor takes on a variety of roles. Writer Isobel Mcarthur plays Mrs Bennett and Mr Darcy and Hannah Jarrett-Scott, Tori Burgess, Christina Gordon and Leah Jamieson switch between Bennett daughters and an impressive number of other characters. What makes this play so charming is the versatility of the actors and the brilliance of their comedy timing.

A few songs such as "You're So Vain" and "Young Hearts Run Free" appear in the style of karaoke and really ramp up the sense of fun. The audience are on their feet regardless for the curtain call but there's a sense that they're dying to join in for a sing-a-long.

Fierce and bold, Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort Of) is a riotous celebration of Austen's work and the packed-out theatre certainly ensured this was a triumphant homecoming.

Photo credit: Matt Crockett

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