Pride and Prejudice at Malvern Theatres (From Hereford Times)

Pride and Prejudice at Malvern Theatres

1:23pm Tuesday 26th January 2010 in

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PARING down Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice for the stage presents a major challenge and the sacrifice of both text and subtlety of character.

In the Theatre Royal Bath production currently showing at Malvern’s Festival Theatre, much of Austen’s delightful nuance has been sacrificed to broad brush strokes and a tendency to caricature. This approach paid off more effectively in the second half than in the first, where the tone being strived for was strangely elusive. Tom Mothersdale played Mr Collins like a manic Mr Bean, but before the interval, his performance was strikingly at odds with the rest of the cast. Once the curtain went up for Act II, playing it for laughs was the name of the game and the production finally and satisfyingly took off - eavesdropping topiary hats and soldiers riding piggy back with hobby horses were particularly good fun.

Susan Hampshire gave us a perfect Mrs Bennet - single-minded, yet empty-headed, and Katie Lightfoot was an assured Elizabeth, but there was little sign of any spark between her and Darcy, a performance by Nicholas Taylor that never threatened Colin Firth’s supremacy in the role. The Bill’s Peter Ellis, however, made sure that he extracted maximum comic effect with a well-timed delivery of Mr Bennet’s finest bon mots.

There was certainly more com than rom in this production, which at moments had a surreal sense of French farce and was, ultimately, more a frothy bit of fun than the acutely observed comedy of manners Jane Austen wrote.

Pride and Prejudice is at Malvern Theatres until Saturday, January 30. To book, call the box office on 01684 892277 or visit malvern-theatres.co.uk