The Chilliwack Players Guild is calling their upcoming production of Pride and Prejudice “not your grandmother’s Austen.”
Director Katy Lowe describes it as a ’70s or ’90s situation comedy, and it’ll be at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre from Nov. 21 to Dec. 1.
“It’s not a period piece. You’re going to see regency gowns, but you’ll also see street shoes. You’ll see embroidery, but you’ll also see a basketball,” Lowe said. “It’s a really fun play.”
This version of Jane Austen’s 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice is adapted by Kate Hamill who has taken the play to modern day.
In this play, the guild has “deconstructed” the piece and brought it down to the main line of story, which is a romantic comedy, Lowe said.
In this adaptation, there are four daughters in the Bennet family, including the main character Lizzy. The family has no money and Mrs. Bennet is trying to marry off her daughters, but the outspoken Lizzy is determined to never marry, despite mounting pressure from society. But can she resist love, especially when the vaguely handsome, mildly amusing, and impossibly aggravating Mr. Darcy keeps popping up at every turn?
“Mr. Darcy is terribly wealthy and well-brought-up. His prejudice against people who are crass is so strong that there’s just no way he would ever entertain that,” Lowe said. “You know from the beginning they’re meant to be together, but it’s their pride and their prejudice that keeps them apart.”
It was written to be a “fast-paced, rollicking, irreverent display of the absurdity of the world of Jane Austen,” Lowe said. “Kate Hamill has taken that comedy of manners and totally zoomed in on it.”
The guild’s production has a cast of eight people with some playing two or even three characters. The play is “frantic” at spots and includes slamming doors, men in wigs, crazy music, dancing and innuendo.
Lowe believes Jane Austen belongs to the youth.
“Every generation, you will find fanatics over Jane Austen because she knows how to write from the point of view of the young adult and how awkward it can be. You have misunderstandings, relationship disasters and difficult elders that are trying to control them. It’s the same for every generation, it just changes, but it’s the same problems.”
The play is ideal for kids aged 13 and up and Lowe really wants teenagers and other youth to see it. Why?
“To let them know that we’ve all been there. That we’ll be watching with them and laughing and letting them know that it gets better. We can laugh at it all because we can see the absurdity of the story of love.”
The Chilliwack Players Guild presents Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, adapted by Kate Hamill from Thursday, Nov. 21 to Sunday, Dec. 1 at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre. Show times are: Nov. 21, 22, 23, 28, 29 and 30 at 7:30 p.m., and matinees are Nov. 24 and Dec. 1 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $30 for adults and $27.50 for seniors and students and can be purchased at the cultural centre, online at chilliwackculturalcentre.ca or by calling 604-391-SHOW (7469).
For more, go to playersguild.ca/productions/pride-and-prejudice.
