Week of Theater: Pride & Prejudice

My Pemberley. Not the estate in Derbyshire.

My cats are named Colin and Pemberley. Obviously I love Pride and Prejudice. I'm at the point where I find it incredibly odd when I hear other people say "Pemberley." On the other hand, most people don't refer to Mr. Darcy's estate as "Pem Pem," which is what I usually call my cat. Who is adorable. (See left.)

Anyway, my third show this week was  Pride and Prejudice at Round House. The actors playing Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, Kate Cook and Michael Brusasco, recently played the roles for the same director at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Cook was a fantastic Lizzy; honestly, she was all I could hope for in the part. She had the right balance of wit and wisdom, though at times I did feel like she was smiling perhaps a bit too much.

Brusasco...I don't know. I thought he was great in the first act, which ended with--of course--the proposal. I had issues with him in the second act, during which he went from "aloof" to "comically exaggerated." After seeing the show, I read an interview (second article down) in which Brusasco said "I think there's something laughable - laugh-at-able - about Darcy, in a live performance. . . . The audience is given the chance to laugh at his social awkwardness, at his inability to communicate. Some of the things he says, they're just cringe-worthy."

There are certainly times when Darcy's awkwardness can be amusing, but doing a comic take that came straight out of some slapstick bit when Darcy runs into Elizabeth and the Gardiners at Pemberley (...hee) is not right. Darcy is not someone who makes faces or is overtly comical. He might say awkward things; people might say things that are funny about him. But Darcy should never make faces that I expect to see a comic actor making.

Otherwise, the adaptation worked well. The second act felt a bit rushed; we definitely didn't get to spend enough time seeing Elizabeth soften toward Darcy, and everything about the Lydia/Wickham subplot happened far too quickly. (And yet we get a scene with the Gardiners making jokes about the name Lambton? Really?) The show also had a tendency to try to foreshadow things that weren't really necessary. But in general, the flow of the show went very well.

The supporting cast were quite good. Heather Haney, who played Jane, reminded me of Rachel McAdams and had the right qualities of beauty and sweetness. James Konicek is a favorite of mine, and his Mr. Collins was reminiscent of his Benedict Arnold in Liberty Smith. In an amusing way. (He's the comic relief, Michael Brusasco.) Danny Gavigan seemed to try to do some sort of lower class accent for Mr. Wickham, but had the right combination of good lucks and sleaziness.

I usually don't comment much on the set, but this was an interesting one. In the middle of the stage was a square piece that rotated and had doors that opened and could be used to indicate various rooms. But because this piece was so bulky, it required that almost all of the action had to take place front stage, center to be seen. It worked better in theory than in practice, I think, though I can't complain about the location of the action--I was sitting in the second row in the center section.

One is always pickiest about things he or she loves, and so it is with me and P&P. It's a very well-done show, and I can't complain too much about a show in which both Darcy and Lizzy were brought to tears in the second proposal scene. So sweet.

I also want to credit Round House, which focuses on adaptations of literature. It's a fascinating concept. For all that it's hard to adapt books to movies, it's that much harder to adapt books to plays.