Review: Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of), UK Tour, at the Lowry, Salford

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife"

That is the opening line to Jane Austen's classic Pride & Prejudice, a book that has sold over 20 million copies, and gets adapted again and again, whether that be for the stage or screen. I of course have read the book, seen the 1995 BBC series and the 2005 film, and saw it on stage a few years ago (oddly enough in the same theatre). 

In 2018, at the TORN Theatre in Glasgow, a new version of the classic was being created: fast forward a few years, it played London's Criterion Theatre, and won the 2022 Olivier for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play. 

Meet Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) - part play, part parody, and part karaoke party 

Instead of a whole ensemble, we are greeted with 5 female servants of a manor house, who while their masters are away, they PLAY, and tell this much loved story from a 21st century angle. With karaoke chucked in here and there for good measure. 

Clearing this up, because I can see the curiosity coming through the computer screen, is that the karaoke numbers do not feel out of place. It's a bit silly, but so is the whole play itself. And it's all stuff you know, from Elvis Costello, Carole King, Bonnie Tyler, and my personal favourite: Elizabeth Bennett belting out Carly Simon's You're So Vain (one of my absolute favourite songs) after her first prickly meeting with Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy. 

Apart from Emmy Stonelake, who played Lizzie Bennett (loved that she got to use her natural Welsh accent by the way), all the other women in the cast got to play everyone else. 

Whether the character was male or female, old or young, high or low social standing, they were played by a woman on stage 

There was something so powerful and endearing about getting to see an all-female cast like this. A reversal of Shakespeare's day, when all the parts would have been played by men. Lucy Gray (Bingley, Charlotte Lucas), Dannie Harris (Darcy, Mrs Bennett), Leah Jamieson (Mary & Lydia Bennett) and Megan Louise Wilson (Jane, Wickham and Lady Catherine) were all fantastic, and Stonelake's Lizzie tied everything together. Jamieson's Lydia was particularly hilarious, paired with a thick Scouse accent, she truly was the brat you loved to hate. 

This is the first P&P I've seen where I've truly laughed out loud (and not counting the cringey laughing at how oblivious Lizzie and Darcy are, or Mr Collins being Mr Collins). It's incredibly funny, silly, and wacky. 

And in what other version, would say, for example, Lizzie say to a very oblivious Mr Collins what we're all thinking...

There are nuances and Easter eggs that those who have seen Pride & Prejudice would LOVE, such as Mr Bennett being no more than a chair with it's back to the audience and showing the top of the newspaper; and many references being made to Mr Darcy being dry... 

With that in mind, I would only not recommend this to those who are complete Pride & Prejudice newbies, but even then, that it only a maybe. For everyone else who is open to this however, and more importantly a good laugh, then this is a must-see. 

It's the take on Pride & Prejudice unlike any you will ever see. And it also reminded my just how good the baseline story is.