Review: 'Pride and Prejudice' at Playhouse on Park

West Hartford, CT - Playhouse on Park has launched a production of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, a play with some music and dancing written by actor/playwright Kate Hamill, adapted of course from the classic novel by Jane Austin. The adaptation is playfully contemporary in tone and most patrons will be able to understand and relate to finer points of the novel.

The world premiere production of the work was co-produced by Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival and Primary Stages, and has also received a presentation as part of The Other Season at Seattle Repertory Theatre 2016-2017. Jason O’Connell, the husband of Ms. Hamill, directed this version with a great eye to the humor in the piece, while not losing sight of the tale set in England in the early nineteenth century that patrons would expect. Those unfamiliar with this work of classic literature will appreciate the comedy that lightens the tale, but I suspect that most Jane Austin fans will enjoy this version both for the old and the more modern elements.

This PRIDE AND PREJUDICE was written to feel edgier and more modern than its source material (it is - in many ways - a screwball rom-com that has yet to meet an entendre it didn’t double) … Actors swap characters (and genders) before our eyes, the soundtrack is rife with anachronism, and lavish Austen-era balls are staged like high-school dance parties out of a John Hughes movie...Nevertheless, this is not an “update.” The emotional realities of these characters’ lives, and the constraints of the world they (in particular, the women) inhabit are very much in keeping with the period of Austen’s original.” - Jason O’Connell, director

Grace Englehart, the dramaturg intern writes that the playwright specifies that the cast be more than half female so that casting becomes non-gender specific. The result is that the actor Matthew Krob plays the pompous Mr. Collins, Mr. Wickham and Miss Bingley, while Jane Bradley quick changes between the characters of Mr. Bingley and the daughter Mary Bennett. With the help of the durable costumes, the hardworking actors meet the challenges of their various roles.

Equity member Kimberly Chatterjee only had to cover the role of Elizabeth Bennett in her Playhouse on Park debut, but that is was an important one; she gave a great performance as this early feminist. Ms. Chatterjee played the roles of Lydia and Lady Catherine in the Primary Stages production of P & P.

Jane Bradley (THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST at Playhouse) had to navigate the most onstage quick changes and some how made it all look easy, so that when she was late for one entrance as scripted, the audience welcomed her back to the stage with spontaneous applause. Equity actress Maia Guest, who played Feste in TWELFTH NIGHT with Hudson Valley Shakespeare that aired on PBS, was a riot in the role of the Bennett family matriarch and also played the roles of servants in her Playhouse debut.

Nadezha Ame, a graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts and New World School of the Arts, was lovely in the role of Jane Bennett as well as the veiled Miss De Bourgh in her Playhouse debut. Mr. Krob, who was in the US tour of WEST SIDE STORY as Glad Hand, did a tremendous job of switching between his various roles in his Playhouse debut.

Kelly Letourneau had the greatest age range to cover between the youngest Bennet daughter Lydia and the elder Lady Catherine and she did very well with both. Nicholas Robert Ortiz, who earned his BFA in Acting from Texas State University, made his Playhouse debut in the role of the handsome Mr. Darcy. Sophie Sorensen made her debut at The Playhouse in the roles of Charlotte Lucas and the Bennett patriarch. Ms. Sorensen is the voice of the Beatles Channel on Sirius XM.

Lighting design by Johann Fitzpatrick worked well with the scenic design done by Randall Parsons. Costumes by Raven Ong, who holds an MFA in Costume Design from UConn and teaches at Central CT State University, were cleverly designed to allow for quick changes for those in need of them. Joey Beltre was choreographer of both the contemporary and classical dance moves and Jen Scapetis-Tycer (A SHAYNA MAIDEL) helped with the British dialect. Kirk Ruby (A SHAYNA MAIDEL) was in charge of the delightful sound design.

The playwright is currently working on new adaptations of THE ODYSSEY and THE SCARLET LETTER, as well as several new original plays (PROSTITUTE PLAY, IN THE MINES, LOVE POEM.)

Student, senior, Let's Go Arts, and group sales discounts are available! Call the box office at 860-523-5900 x10 or purchase tickets online at www.playhouseonpark.org. Visit the River Bend Bookshop pop up store in the lobby of Playhouse on Park through the run of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. 20% of all sales will be donated to the Playhouse. Thank you to the staff of Playhouse on Park for reaching out to me after the death of my mother. Their notes of sympathy meant so much to me.

Nancy Sasso Janis, writing theatre reviews since 2012 as a way to support local venues, posts well over 100 reviews each year. In 2016, her membership in the Connecticut Critics Circle began and her contributions of theatrical reviews, previews, and audition notices are posted not only in the Naugatuck Patch but also on the Patch sites closest to the venue. Follow the reviewer on her Facebook pages Nancy Sasso Janis: Theatre Reviewer and Connecticut Theatre Previews and on Twitter @nancysjanis417 Check out the NEW CCC Facebook page.

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