REVIEW: Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) at Mayflower Theatre

Tonight, Mayflower Theatre welcomes Jane Austen onto their stage…     sort of. The timeless classic, ‘Pride & Prejudice’ has come to Southampton once again…      sort of. Enough of that, this is ‘Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of)’ by Isobel McArthur - after Jane Austen. This is that classic story, but like you’ve never heard it or seen it told before. From being a fringe show, to making it big in the West-End, winning an Olivier Award for best Entertainment or Comedy play, to now touring this amazing show - I can promise you have never seen a comedy quite like this one.

When we talk about comedy, this play has it in bundles. The plot follows Jane Austen’s book but from the perspective of the all female servants with modern language and even a few popular culture songs. Directed and adapted by Isobel McArthur, she has done a phenomenal job at making this story a comedic masterpiece. The cast is a group of 5 or 6 females that are all acting out how they view the classic ‘Pride & Prejudice’ but whilst still working as servants. Such a fresh idea that’s really exciting to watch. I have personally never read, or watched Pride & Prejudice in any capacity so again I was coming in completely blind to this. Usually the story aspect can get lost in a mix of jokes in comedy plays - but for this one, I followed along with the story the whole way.

The cast was excellent. Like I’ve said, there were only 5 of them, but they were playing the roles of about 20 characters between them - incredible! The 5 cast members we had were; Emma Rose Creaner, Eleanor Kane, Rhianna McGreevy, Naomi Preston Low, and Christine Steel. These guys were phenomenal. There is so much movement and direction here and I’m not sure if people know how difficult both acting, timing, and movement all is. Especially when there are only 5 people on stage, the multi-character roles that each of them played was incredible. There was a very clear distinction between each different character, to the point where you weren’t wondering who was on the stage or what was going on at any one point. I was seriously impressed and surprised by how much I enjoyed this show - and a big part of that is down to the cast. The comedic timing was impeccable, and the delivery was even better! Bravo!

The set and design for this show was simple but that’s all it needed to be. The set was a big grand stair case with cupboards under the stairs and a grand bookcase as well. I loved how they would portray different places by the use of both light and a different colour sofa for example. It was so simple, but you could see exactly what was going on still. The costumes were period accurate, and I think a quick round of applause needs to be given for the extremely quick changes that happen - sometimes even on stage! One thing I particularly really liked, was when revealing a new place, the actors would use rose petals along with the lighting and some music to give a sense of the overall vibe of that place. This was not only hilarious, but also very helpful in trying to understand the flow of the story.

This play does also involve a little jukebox and some music. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but the actors are also musicians with some of them playing guitar, some playing piano, and even a Tamborine and recorder. Not only is this impressive again, it’s just really funny to see when it comes out of nowhere. Big shout out to Eleanor Kane as well, because they poke fun at not letting her sing throughout the entirety of the show, and not to give anything away, but the pay off at the end is definitely worth the wait. Hearing songs such as ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow’ and ‘You’re So Vein’ just make sense for the story - and I’m not sure I’ll be able to watch it without thinking of these songs now.

Overall, this show is hilarious. I strongly believe that this is a show that everybody needs to see. I had very little interest in ‘Pride & Prejudice’, but this made that story interesting to me. There are jokes upon jokes upon jokes. Even if you don’t laugh at everything, I guarantee you will be laughing at some point throughout the evening. I just remember saying that, as funny as the show is, it’s also incredibly clever. To know Jane Austen’s work that well, to be able to create a version of the story like this one - just wow! ‘Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of)’ is in Southampton until 14th June and if I was you, I would certainly get tickets. This is one you wouldn’t want to miss!