So I’m going to assume everyone who wants to know the basic plot of P & P knows it and skip to the play related parts. This performance was the new adaptation by Tom Wood seen at Citadel Theatre in Edmonton with the ever charming C as company.
The costumes were gorgeous and accurate – they even had different fabric and levels of ornamentation to display station! But it was the motion capable set with pieces capable of creating shrubbery that most captivated me – the actors were able to cross the stage ‘walking down a path in the shrubbery’ turn around outside the rotational platform/portion and then walk down a different arrangement of set pieces creating a new path.
Okay, first the good changes:
1) The meeting of Mr. Wickham by the Bennet girls and subsequently Mr. Darcy has been changed. It’s a good change and plays well with the adaptive set. It involves a sword fight which had some excellent and well thought out staging.
2) The scene before the return of Mr. Bingley has been adapted in that the Bennett’s are doing laundry. They play it very true to the era and it is entertainingly comedic.
The less entertaining changes is best explained by saying that they put a kiss in between Mr. Bingley and Jane in front of the family in the sitting room after she accepts! I was horrified that they’d done so many other true to the period things, including having the gents flip their coat tails and not showing the girls’ ankles, only to have that. They also put in a kiss between Mr.Darcy and Lizzie, but that was at least out in the park away from the families so it’s less completely scandalous and almost vaguely plausible.
I’d still encourage everyone who is fond of the author, the book, or the period to go however.