Gay Pride and No Prejudice by David Kerby-Kendall. The Union Theatre, 229 Union Street, London until 02 November 2024.

2✩✩ Review: William Russell.

“Missed opportunities galore.”

There is an inspired idea at the heart of this comedy of errors based more or less on Jane Austen's novel but it gets lost in the doing with some terrible performances and a set which refuses to stay still – the peripatetic fireplace is particularly irritating .David Kerby-Kendall's big idea is that Darcy is actually in love with Bingley and they are caught kissing by the Bennets. This leads to lots of fashionable chat about the love that dare not speak its name, although these days it screams it to the rafters, in which the plight of the Bennet daughters, which is that then girls of their class needed husbands to avoid a sad future, is more or less ignored. Meanwhile Mrs Bennet, always portrayed as silly, is here so over the top that Marianne March who plays her needs to be given a couple of cold compresses and sent to blacked out room to calm down. The only actor to hit the Austen tone is unsurpisingly in a way David Kerby-Kendall as Mr Bennet. As Darcy and Bingley seem to have been chums as lads when the swam together and compared growth of vital parts and must have gone to public school the discovery that they are in love is hardly a surprise. The English public school classes have been doing it ever since public schools began and Bingley knows what to expect from the distinctly lacklustre Darcy. The story is told by an ageing Darcy seated in front of that peripatetic fireplace – a little more volume from Michael Gillette would have helped enormously. Only Elizabeth and Jane of the five daughters appear, and Mr Wickham gets a passing mention, which rather diminishes Mrs Bennet's plight – husbands for daughters was a serious matter and if they came with disadvantages as long as they had an estate and several thousand a year she is well pleased. Lady Catherine de Bourg also does not appear, which seems an opportunity missed. Part of the novel's charm is the development of Elizabeth, the cleverest of the five, but whether she would, indeed could, have developed as she does here is another matter into an activist speaking out for women's rights `and gender equality is unlikely. If everyone calmed down, the endless furniture shifting and drinking out of empty glasses stopped, and a few lessons in speaking out were held, then what is an evening of missed opportunities galore – Bingley's erection, however is not one of them - could still be saved.

Cast

Sophie Bloor – Elizabeth.

Sophie Bradley – Jane.

Michael Gillette – Darcy.

Noah Butt – Bingley.

Marianne March – Mrs Bennet.

David Kerby-Kendall – Mr Bennet.

Creatives

Director - Luke Fredericks.

Production Designer – Bob Sterrett.