Review: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Jermyn Street Theatre, 3 December 2016

Two Bit Classics, Joannah Tincey and Nick Underwood have brought their successful touring two-actor production of Pride and Prejudice to London. Through a mixture of dialogue and third-person narrative, Tincey and Underwood inhabit all the characters of Jane Austen's beloved novel, which means quick successions of back-and-forth exchanges, sometimes even carried out by the same actor.

The pair do a wonderful job differentiating the various characters, helped by director Abigail Anderson and designer Dora Schweitzer, who set the action on a versatile wooden stage and provide accessories which - along with accent, manner of speaking and attitude - help the audience understand who's talking when. With a quick, clever buttoning or unbuttoning of a coat or a dress, Tincey can become Mr Bingley and Underwood can become Kitty. Through gender swapping and multiple parts, the pair let us know that there are no limits to what an actor can do.

Schweitzer does a stupendous job making sure each person has something that distinguishes them visually, from Mr Bennet with his pipe and book and Mrs Bennet with her handkerchief to Wickham and his sash. Only Darcy and Elizabeth are left bare and simple, in the best way, just as the actors do in their effective interpretations.

Well adapted by Tincey, the play has no external dialogue nor narration, as she picked and selected excerpts of Austen's novel and rearranged them according to the needs of her work. Lighting designer Simon Wilkinson also deserves a mention, his mix of warm, homey tones and tangs of icy hues reflecting moods and helping the audience become one with the characters on a subconscious level.

A tour-de-force in all and for all, as the performers never leave the stage and manage - in a charmingly natural way - to provide the audience with an emotive, funny and unexpected show.

Pride & Prejudice runs at the Jermyn Street Theater until 21 December

Photo by Carrie Johnson.

Read Joannah Tincey's guest blog

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