Jane Austen Charm Coming to The Rep in MISS BENNET: CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY

The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis is no stranger to winning stage adaptations of Jane Austen, having produced Emma in 2008 and Sense and Sensibility in 2013. However, with Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, The Rep will present a new breed of Austen-inspired theatre.

Directed by Jenn Thompson, the play runs November 29 - December 24 on the Virginia Jackson Browning Mainstage at the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts.

Written by the playwriting team of Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, Miss Bennet is an imagined sequel to Austen's Pride and Prejudice. This time, the bookish middle child of the Bennet family finally has her day. Constantly overshadowed by her four sisters, Mary Bennet finds hope for a new life beyond her family from an unexpected holiday romance. Austen fans and first-timers alike will find much to love in this alluring comedic tale.

Kate Abbruzzese leads a young and exciting cast as Mary, while Miles G. Jackson portrays her studious but socially maladroit suitor, Arthur de Bourgh. Both are making their Rep debuts.

Harveen Sandhu and Rhett Aren Guter appear as Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy, the couple whose famously rocky courtship formed the heart of Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Kim Wong (returning straight from The Rep's current production of Hamlet) and Austen Danielle Bohmer (One Man, Two Guvnors, 2014) appear as Mary's sisters Jane and Lydia. Completing the cast are Peterson Townsend (Satchel Paige and the Kansas City Swing, 2016) as Charles Bingley and Victoria Frings as Anne de Bourgh.

As director, Thompson reunites with two members of the acclaimed design team that helped make her 2015 production of Angel Street a double St. Louis Theater Circle Award winner. Wilson Chin, whose multi-story Angel Street manor won for Outstanding Set Design, will design the set, while David Toser returns with an elegant collection of period costume designs.

Philip Rosenberg (lighting designer), Toby Algya (sound designer) and Emilee Buchheit (stage manager) round out the production team.

Tickets to The Rep's production of Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley are currently on sale, and can be purchased online at repstl.org, by calling the Box Office at 314-968-4925 or visiting the Loretto-Hilton Center at 130 Edgar Road (on the campus of Webster University) from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Ticket costs range from $18.50 to $89.

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