Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Pride and Prejudice Director's Note



This production celebrates the journey of reading, of opening a book and entering a world of the imagination. Our imaginations as readers can incorporate personal connections to a text. My personal experience of the early-nineteenth century is limited to books I have read, films I have seen, and historic homes I have toured. When I read Jane Austen, I don’t usually imagine the characters as having British accents. But certain moments from representations of Pride and Prejudice in popular culture are inescapable. I do picture Dame Judi Dench as Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy.  (I also have trouble separating the marriage market of Jane Austen’s world from contemporary reality TV dating shows such as The Bachelor.)

In approaching Pride and Prejudice as a script, I pictured a young woman reading the novel in a coffee shop and being drawn into the story, imagining herself as Elizabeth Bennet. Though the novel offers narration in the third person, Austen’s use of free indirect discourse connects the reader primarily with Elizabeth. Because Elizabeth is a keen observer with a wry wit, as a reader it is a pleasure to experience the world of the novel from her perspective.

Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan offer a stage adaptation that includes some word-for-word passages from the novel, but pares down the number of characters and emphasizes the theatrical potential of this story. The play is characterized by rapid changes of location, and includes moments when characters inhabit multiple locations at once. Many of the supporting characters are painted as comic types in the script; our actors have endeavored to combine contemporary insight with period style to play their roles with some nuance. In many ways the production mimics the mental processes of reading. By attempting to access the past through the present, we acknowledge that what Austen teaches us about love, marriage, and families transcends her time.      

No comments: