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Bard company does justice to popular Austen classic
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
And so begins one of my favourite stories – Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
I have read the book a number of times, watched the well-known BBC adaptation as many times again, and even suffered the Hollywood remake.
So how would the stage production measure up? The answer – very well.
The novel was brought to life last night on stage at Derby's Guildhall in a new adaptation written and directed by Clare Snape, and performed by the Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company.
It is more than two decades since the company last performed a play that was not written by the Bard, and this was the group's first offering of 2010.
Pride and Prejudice follows the fortunes of the Bennet family of five daughters.
The absence of a male heir means their home will pass to a cousin, William Collins, on their father's death, so it is important that the girls marry men with property and a good fortune.
Enter the dashing Mr Bingley, the rich but aloof Mr Darcy and the deceptive Mr Wickham.
It is a tough call to do justice to one of Britain's best loved and enduring novels in just a couple of hours, but the Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company did an impressive job, moving seamlessly from scene to scene and overlapping dialogue to carry the audience along.
Of course bits of the tale had to be shortened or missed out, but the story had been sensitively edited by Clare Snape so that it flowed well and the main themes were preserved.
Irene Button was the star of the performance as Mrs Bennet, the girls' mother, which she played to perfection, giving the audience plenty of laughs along the way.
And although the shoes of Colin Firth, who famously played Mr Darcy for the television adaptation, were big ones to fill, Derby's own Colin – Colin Dawes – did a great job as he brooded and stalked the stage, before slowly becoming warmer as he grew to love Elizabeth Bennet.
Mathew Shepherd was also very entertaining as the blundering Mr Collins.
All in all the performance was well received and very enjoyable – a credit to the whole cast.
The only slight sticking point for me was the ending. The final scene was reminiscent of the end of the movie, starring Keira Knightley as Elizabeth, where she and Mr Darcy share a kiss.
Personally I would have preferred a primmer, more 19th-century, way of bringing things to a close, which I felt would have been truer to the novel.
Jade Beecroft
Derby Evening Telegraph