Pride and Prejudice - Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre - not great photo, sorry

'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a play based on a witty yet not hilarious book, which is rendered purely comedic, loses some of its soul.' - Alice Lambert

This was my first visit to Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. I was seated in one of the end seats on the back row; too far away to see facial expressions, but I did appreciate having a more complete view of the stage. It was quite special to see the actors skittering about the set like dolls in a Regency's doll's house. The revolving set, with stairs leading up to an elegant walkway/balcony, was impressive.

There were parts of this production that I thought were well done, but overall I wasn't keen on it. It was mostly played for laughs, which meant that the characters were portrayed in an over-the-top, parodic sort of way. Yes, I know Mrs Bennet, Mr Collins and Lydia are larger than life, parodic kinds of characters...but not to the extent that they were in this production; Mrs Bennet and Mr Collins especially. And Mary Bennet! I have a special affinity with Mary, having played her last year in the Hampstead Players' P&P, and was disappointed to see her portrayed so cartoonishly in this version by Leigh Quinn. She spoke like an elderly woman and her singing was ridiculously terrible.

I didn't warm to Tafline Steen as Elizabeth, either. I thought she was great in the contemporary play Charles III, in which she played art student Jess. In P&P she spoke with a posher accent but still seemed to use the same inflections and intonations as she had done in Charles III, which made Lizzy sound too modern. But - worse - she came across as flippant and glib, especially in the scene in which she was introduced to Lady Catherine de Bourgh. There wasn't much depth or reflectiveness to her at all. 

The action went at a whirlwind pace, with scarcely any build-up to Darcy's doomed first proposal, but the ending dragged. Mr Bennet took it upon himself in the penultimate(?) scene to recount his life story - the reasons why he had married Mrs Bennet etc. - which was mildly interesting but unnecessary. A lot could have been cut from the last few scenes and more time given to the Darcy/Lizzy relationship build-up. Also, Darcy's first proposal took place at Lady Catherine's house, when the other members of the party had just gone to dinner, and were presumably waiting for Darcy and Lizzy! Unrealistic!

Having said all that, there were parts of the play that I enjoyed and thought were very good:

• Costumes!
• The relationships between the sisters. I liked the way they related and reacted to one another non-verbally in the background. For example, Jane comforting Mary after her disastrous singing episode.
• The weird hopping dance at the Netherfield Ball performed by Lizzy and Darcy (and others). I know this was another example of a reasonably serious scene played for laughs - but I did actually find it genuinely funny. It was just quite strange and original to see them moving about like that. Was it an actual Regency-era dance? 
• Mr Bennet trying to leave the room as unobtrusively as possible while Mrs Bennet tried to convince Mr Collins that Lizzy would indeed marry him.
• The final scene in which different characters spoke aloud the letters they had written to other characters, who read and reacted to them non-verbally. For example, Lizzy reacted to a letter from Lydia, in which Lydia told her how much she was enjoying life with Wickham...but that they didn't have much money, and could Lizzy please send her some? 

Lastly: why did they call Anne de Bourgh 'Annabel'? I didn't get it.

Next: The Two Gentlemen of Verona