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If Star Trek’s Doctor McCoy were watching this he would most likely say, “It’s Austen, Jim, but not as we know it”. Indeed, setting Pride and Prejudice in outer space is the only excess left, now Isobel McArthur has had her wicked way with Austen's novel. Never have I seen a story so mercilessly lampooned, and yet survive; it’s integrity pretty much intact.

This is a riotous, rebellious, completely-over-the-top telling of the tale by five chamber maids from below stairs - each wearing white undies, black pit boots and yellow marigold gloves. Servants, they say, are integral to love stories. They are the women who launder the bedding the 'upper classes' frolic in and are therefore entitled to their irreverence.

This raucous comedy premiered 5 years ago and has been into the West End and back out again. It’s presented in modern English (I’ve never heard the F-word get such a perfect laugh) with karaoke microphones and a beat box to puncture the story with hit parade songs; so well chosen, they encapsulate angst in a way that Jane Austen’s original prose never could.

When Naomi Preston Low’s Elizabeth wants to tell Mr Darcy what she thinks of him, she bursts into Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain with such a double-edged smirk it brings the house down. Two hours later the entire auditorium was giving the entire cast a stupendous ovation.

There are five of them - all young woman with a preponderance of regional accents. So, yes, Darcy, Bingham and Wickham are rakish girls in white nighties and period military uniform. Rhianna McGreevy plays Darcy and Mrs Bennett, both with brilliant observation. Darcy is clearly a stiff, ram-rod Presbyterian; Mrs Bennett can’t control her chaos. When Christmas goes so badly, she’s panicking that, “the Baby Jesus will be spinning in his grave.”

The internal jokes stack up wonderfully. When Darcy is introduced to the five daughters, they all stand back in amazement. “But... you’re so dry!”, is the squeal. They were clearly expecting someone sopping wet.

And the visual gags keep on coming. Of course, Jane needs a horse to ride over to The Bingley’s, so here’s a statue of one on casters. Christine Steel later appears at the mysterious aristocrat Lady Catherine de Burgh and just can’t wait to sing a song about a Lady in Red, written by a distant nephew, Chris.

Miss McArthur’s script makes no pretence at being anything other than a satire of a satire. She makes no claims to be illuminating the text or any other such nonsense. She simply takes Austen to infinity and beyond.

Nor does the show shy away from Austen’s 18th Century concerns.

Amidst the mayhem and tom foolery is a deep respect for women who simply feel they will never be able to marry for love - or sense the shame they can be subjected to if they dare run off with a soldier. And underlying it all is Mrs Bennett’s eternal fretting about what would happen to the family’s financial security if none of her brood should woo a wealthy man.

All the performances are simply superb but Irish actor Emma Rose Creaner is even more bouncy and bumptious than the others. At one point she has to walk across the stage from one wing to the other. The contemptuous cursory glance she gives the audience on the way is a classic example of the pinpoint physical acting at which they all excel.

The witty lines and ridiculous moments come so thick and fast, your own mental agility is given a real run for its money. It’s a first-rate idea - take a well-known and much-loved polite novel and run riot with it. It’s brave, bold and crazy - and it works a treat.

I only wish the original author had been in the seat beside me, stuffing her mobcap in her mouth to control her hysteria.  

Five stars

Reviewed by Chris Eldon Lee at Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury on Tuesday 29 October. Pride & Prejudice (*sort of) continues to show at the venue until Saturday 2 November