You don’t have to be a Jane Austen fan to enjoy Queensland Theatre’s 2025 season opener. Will it help if you are? Almost certainly. Because you will know the story of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s most famous novel, first published in 1813.
On the other hand if, like me, you have never read the book you may find Pride & Prejudice, the stage version, something of a revelation. Sure, it’s the foundational romcom story but there’s much more to it.
Some folks were aghast when I said I had never read it. I’m more a Hemingway man. Anyhow, I bought an inexpensive Penguin Classic copy and started reading and was pleasantly surprised. The chapters are short and it moves along pretty well and I guess that made it perfect for an adaptation.
Writers Wendy Mocke and Lewis Treston have done a great job abridging one of literature’s classic novels into a play that runs for two and a half hours including interval.
And co-directors Bridget Boyle and Daniel Evans (the new QT artistic director) have done an amazing job bringing it to the stage. This is a production worthy of Broadway and the West End (London’s West End, not the one next to South Brisbane). Sure, it needs a few tweaks and some of the dancing scenes were a tad overlong for me.
But I loved the idea and at times they are really Voguing. It’s a brilliant way of framing and contemporising this romantic tale from Regency England. I’m glad they stuck to the period costumes because the story is very much one of its time. But they have managed to make it sassy and modern in the most engaging way. And it’s funny, too. Austen’s wit enlivens the book and this play.
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It’s a brilliant way to start the year for Queensland Theatre. They do say to begin as you mean to go on. After some rocky times in the past year or two (let’s not go there right now) the company seems reenergised and ready to rock.
And it’s lovely to begin with an all-Queensland cast – and how brilliant they all are. Of course, the key stars are Maddison Burridge as Elizabeth Bennet and the appropriately tall and handsome Andrew Hearle is Fitzwilliam Darcy Esquire. Mr Darcy to you.
Bryan Probets is wonderful as Mr Bennet and Sir William Lucas. Probets is a comic genius much loved by Queensland audiences and he is priceless in this production. He does a very good puppet show as a dog. You’ll see what I mean when you see the show.
Gael Ballantyne is superb as Mrs Bennet; Amy Ingram is a scream as Charlotte; and Chenoa Dermal is also great as Mary. Everyone is good. I should also mention Cameron Hurry, who plays the preposterous Mr Collins, an absolute tosser of the first order.
Fans and Austen aficionados (they are legion) will know what’s coming, but since I am only part-way through the book and I have never watched a screen version I was enthralled and waiting to see how it all panned out. Oh, yes, I knew – spoiler alert – that they get together in the end, but there’s quite a bit to get through on the way. It is, as they say, complicated, and an interesting window into the social mores of the day and the lot of women.
Designer Christina Smith has done a great job with the sets – it’s very clever how the great Regency houses are represented by maquettes.
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It’s all highly choreographed, too, rather masterfully by Nerida Matthaei. There’s a lot of movement on stage and, yes, there are those dance scenes (someone may have twerked at one stage). I thought the dance stuff was slightly overdone, but only slightly. I think, keep the dance short and sharp as a form of theatrical punctuation. But, hey, I don’t want to be a Grinch about this show, because it’s pretty damn brilliant.
The production has come to the Playhouse after an out-of-town try-out in Toowoomba where the audience was, I hear, extremely Austen savvy – there was booing, hissing and cheering when the various characters came on.
Co-director Boyle is apparently a bit of an Austen maven, which helped, and Evans, well, can we still call him a Wunderkind? Yes, let’s.
It was quite a weekend at QPAC. It started with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Circa teaming up for Rite of Spring. That was an incredible evening in the Concert Hall and full marks to the musicians and the acrobats and to Umberto Clerici. It couldn’t have been easy conducting with all that tumbling going on behind him!
That was QSO’s season opener and the next night we had Queensland Theatre with a packed house and a world-class production that was warm, funny and completely engaging.
On Sunday, Southern Cross Soloists also started the year with a concert of Viennese music called Celebrate! What a weekend in Brisbane it was! Oh, and Sister Act is still on, too, but that’s another story.
If you’re thinking of going to Pride & Prejudice, I would book very soon because a little bird told me it is close to selling out. As it should be. Jane Austen would be so pleased.
Pride & Prejudice continues at the Playhouse, QPAC, until March 9, queenslandtheatre.com.au