Something rich and strange...

Review of Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice. Where to begin. I was a little disappointed by it.

*gasp*.

Basically there was a lot of chopping and changing to make it fit into the two and a half hours. I'm not sure how attached you are to P&P but it's one of my favourite novels and I've watched the recent BBC production with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle quite a few times. I think that that production was as faithful as one could hope for. Naturally the stage present limitations. In a nutshell:

- the two dances were collapsed into one dance. Hence, instead of Darcy's haughty, slighting comment about Elizabeth at one dance and then being attracted to her at the second, he seems a bit loopy because at the beginning of the evening he rejects her but by the end he likes her?

- lots of good dialogue and development cut out. In particular, a LOT of the dialogue between Darcy and Elizabeth was taken out.

- William McInnes was way too stiff and unnatural. I'm not a big fan of the Aussie ocker accent but I have to say that McInnes' Australian tones are much more attractive to the ear - a lot sexier. He put on a very haughty and stuffy accent for Darcy and it didn't work because it was clearly a strain to maintain and so for a lot of the time his voice trembled and he sounded as if he was about to cry.

- William McInnes's movements around the stage were very jerky and a little mincing. Not a good look.

- Jane does not go to Netherfield, catch flu and have to stay. Accordingly, Elizabeth does not walk over there, get her petticoat stained in mud, encounter Darcy and go through the involved discussion with him and Miss Bingley in the library. I thought that that was a very bad omission. The walk emphasised Lizzie's care for her sister, the encounters with Darcy heightened their attraction and the discussion provided insight into their characters. Part of the discussion was transposed to a chance encounter in a park and it just doesn't work.

- there is no letter from Darcy to Elizabeth. Instead, he comes rushing back in and *says* the key bits to her ie Bingley/Jane and Wickham/evil history. The effect is comical rather than powerful.

- Wickham bumps into Elizabeth on a walk and 2 seconds into their acquaintance he is spilling his history to her.

- at Lady Catherine's house, instead of Lizzie playing the piano with Darcy looking on, for some reason she and Colonel Fitzwilliam start dancing around to no music. Hence when Elizabeth says that Darcy has come to poke fun and tease, I felt like saying: "Well you look stupid dancing around like that!"

- they did away with Aunt Gardiner altogether

- Lizzie does not go on a visit with her Aunt and Uncle and she does not visit Pemberley. Hence, she does not see the human side of Darcy at any point and the storyline relies on his salvation of Lydia alone. I think that Lizzie's encounter with Darcy at Pemberley is very important!

The guy who played Wickham was the gigolo from Love and other Catastrophes - Matthew Dyktynski. Mr Bennet was played by Bruce Myles who has apparently been in SeaChange but I don't remember him. I'm doing a quick search now to see who he was. OK, a quick anzwers search revealed that he was in the first episode of SeaChange as Tony - Laura's boss.

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