Pride and Prejudice (touring) ★★★★

When Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813, its 20-year old novellist couldn’t imagine that well over two hundred years later that her story of love, marriage, class and family would still hold such sway. The strength and complexity of her heroine Elizabeth Bennet, her perceptive social commentary on Regency romance and her wit-filled insight to the working of the human heart, that enchanted her 19th-century readers still resonate with contemporary audiences today.

With the successes of hit shows like Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte and Lost in Austen, with their hip, modernised takes, it is refreshing to be able to enjoy the more faithful retelling of Pride and Prejudice that Kate Hamill’s adaptation offers. In this version, Lizzy Bennet is one of four daughters of a country gentleman with no male heir and as such, the need to find a suitable marriage is always high of the agenda. When a wealthy bachelor Mr Bingley moves into the area, and takes a fancy to Jane, the most beautiful of the sisters, their prospects suddenly look brighter. Conversely his friend Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy manages to offend Lizzy with his seemingly aloof and snobbish behaviour. But pride comes before… well you know how the story unfolds, don’t you?

What really impresses about this production of Pride and Prejudice is the quality of the cast. Joanna Holden is a force of nature as the tireless machinator – treading the fine line of being a hilarious but exhausting caricature of a scheming matchmaker and yet she still manages to convey the underlying seriousness that drives her to protect her daughters from the precarious social position they find themselves in.

Dyfrig Morris brings warmth and grounding to the beleaguered Mr Bennet, as well as a hefty dose of camp to his heavily-veiled turn as Miss Anne de Bourgh. In separate two roles, Ben Fensome brings such convincing range that it is hard to believe it is the same performer. He cuts a fine figure as the dashing, (seemingly) chaming Mr Wickham but it is with his portrayal as Mr Collins, the distant cousin who is set to inherit the Bennet estate, where he truly shines. Pitched somewhere between the obsequiousness of a Mark Gatiss character and an Aardman creation, it is a winning comic tour-de-force. Praise too is deserved for Jessica Ellis swapping between the high-spirited (in every sense) Lydia Bennet and the imperious Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

Tonally, Kate Hamill’s script and Lotte Wakeham‘s direction embraces Austen’s wit and irony and ramps them up to something nearing farce without ever losing fealty to the spirit of the original work. The use of Vitamin String Quartet’s classical take on modern songs provided witty commentary on with Single Ladies accompanying the arrival of the Bennet sisters and Dont You Want Me aunderscoring Mr Collins’ unsuccessful courtship, amongst many others.

The one slight failing of this Pride And Prejudice is that it attempts TV pacing of scenes, with (too) many exits and entrances preventing scenes with the time and space to land emotionally.

However any Pride and Prejudice flies or fails on the won’t-they, of-course-they-will relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy. In the beautifully pitched performances of Rosa Hesmondhalgh as the independent, self-possessed Lizzy Bennet and James Sheldon as the taciturn, inscrutable Darcy they have a winning combination.

From Darcy declaring “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you” to the final act providing its own wet shirt moment, this production provides whatever the Regency version of all the feels would be.