Cast of three will play some 19 roles as Jane Austen’s classic tale of love between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy arrives in east London
Over the course of a mere two hours, Luke Barton, April Hughes and Sarah Gobran will take on 17 roles, plus significant nods to a further two as the trio perform the tale of Pride And Prejudice on stage.
Coming to Wilton’s Music Hall mid March, the Guildford Shakespeare Company (GSC) is touring its 2024 adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel following the show’s successful debut last February and a run at the Jermyn Street Theatre in London last summer.
“It’s been one of those little gifts,” said Sarah, co-founder at GSC and one third of the multi-role cast. “I think it’s captured people’s hearts and that’s special.
“We did it first at Holy Trinity Church in Guildford and then in London – we’ll be in Ipswich this week, back to Guildford for two and then at Wilton’s before we take it on board the Cunard Queen Victoria cruise liner to Bermuda and then to an off-Broadway venue in New York.”
Tickets are already selling fast, so what’s the enduring appeal both of Austen’s story – published 225 years ago – and the company’s presentation of it?
the parts of Pride And Prejudice
“You’d think playing so many parts on stage wouldn’t work,” said Sarah, who adapted the book for the stage along with her fellow GSC co-founder Matt Pinches and director Abigail Pickard Price.
“But the idea came from the balls, where all these young people are constantly meeting and coupling off.
“However, in those days, you always had to have a chaperone present – people were never quite alone.
“That’s where the idea of the cast of three came from.
“It felt like an idea that might work – a circular feeling with the cast constantly swapping characters as they dance.
“Then we worked on turning it into a play and there’s something beautiful about the way it works.
“It’s a story that so many people know and we’ve been very true to the original language in the book – there are so many famous quotes and that’s because of how robustly Austen draws her characters.
“They are so clearly defined that it’s easy to dance across the ballroom, swap a bit of costume, adopt a different mannerism and suddenly become a different character.
“There’s one scene, for example, where I go from Caroline Bingley to Charlotte Lucas with scarcely a step across the stage.
“They are so different – Caroline is such a huge snob, very gregarious and very much a member of the upper class, whereas Charlotte is a modest young woman, not at all romantic, who simply seeks a marriage to someone with a comfortable home.
“It’s a real joy to be able to switch between all those characters, and you see the audience relish it.
“The book is very witty, very sharp – so there’s already so much humour in there, but having three actors play all the roles does have a comic element to it as well.
“That said, it’s about playing these roles with truth rather than sending the characters up.
“We’re in Regency costume in keeping with the setting, so it’s a nice blend of nostalgia and a story that reaches people’s hearts.
“I would like to hope it’s genuine feel-good theatre, which is true to the period but keeps things fresh.”
from open air to the stage
The Guildford Shakespeare Company was formed 19 years ago after Sarah came up with the idea of putting on an open air show in the gardens at Guildford Castle and asked Matt to help put on the show.
Both actors, they’ve continued producing work and expanding GSC into a registered charity that stages productions and works extensively with young people.
Matt said: “We still lead the company and are, in the old-fashioned sense, actor-managers as we still appear on stage.
“We began with a very simple mission, to create exceptional theatre in extraordinary places, often working in a site-responsive way and typically not in theatres.
“Over the last 19 years we’ve used castles, galleries, museums, quarries, lakes, West Horsey Place, where they filmed Ghosts for the BBC and even a Boeing 747.
“Wherever it is, we encourage the audience to engage with the space and its history so the shows we produce are more than just something to watch.
“Originally Pride And Prejudice was performed in a Georgian Church where audiences felt they were like guests at the various weddings that take place.
“While Wilton’s will be different, we’ll be working hard to create that same kind of feeling in east London.”
“Our shows are also our shop window, the other part of the work we do is our outreach education, which works with 24,000 people – young and old, across our region in a variety of different settings.
“A large part of that is about engaging socially excluded and least advantaged groups in our community.
“Projects range from primary after-school clubs to families with teenagers living with mental health challenges.
“We have a young carers programme and last year ran a knife-crime awareness project called Put Up Your Swords around our production of Romeo And Juliet.”
playing favourites
And who wouldn’t want an evening of fun in support of an organisation engaged in such laudable activities?
After all, Pride And Prejudice is a richly satirical comic blast and while Sarah revels in the rudeness and snobbery of playing Caroline Bingley, there’s one character she especially enjoys inhabiting.
“It’s Mrs Bennet,” she said. “She’s such a treat. Her house is always so chaotic and filled with noise.
“She’s a whirlwind, bombastic and loud, but we have to understand she also has five daughters none of whom stand to inherit their father’s house.
“She has to think about what will happen to the family should Mr Bennet die.
“She’s got to get their children married and that ambition is perfectly understandable, given the way things were.”
key details Pride And Prejudice
Pride And Prejudice is set to be performed at Wilton’s Music Hall in Wapping on March 10 and 11, 2025, at 7pm.
Standard tickets ranged from £12.50 to £27.
Find out more about the show here
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