How can you find a new way to indulge your love for Jane Austen?
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| Photo by Rich Ryan |
You took all the Buzzfeed quizzes about “Which Bennet are you?” and watched every Austen remake to be found thousands of times (here’s looking at you, Clueless). What’s left at this point to fuel your Austen fire?
Thanks to the ever-visionary Sarah Rasmussen, the Jungle Theater in Uptown has you covered. On the heels of last year’s unbelievably successful Miss Bennet, the Jungle is providing #tctheater with another witty world premiere play to keep the story of the Bennets living on after Lizzie’s marriage to Mr. Darcy at the end of the beloved book Pride and Prejudice.
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| Photo by Rich Ryan |
While Miss Bennet, which premiered last year (and which I didn’t see – but my friends over at Talkin’ Broadway have the full scoop, just click here to catch up) focused on the story of the oft-forgotten Mary Bennet, The Wickhams gives us all the juicy details of what Lydia has been up to since her secretly forced marriage to George Wickham. It’s an unlikely but visionary entree back into this world, providing a surprisingly fruitful plot line for a lively cast and a delicious piece of fan fiction that left me wanting even more.
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| Photo by Rich Ryan |
Think of The Wickhams as “The Untold Story of Lydia” meets Downton Abbey. Fans of the original book know that George Wickham’s famously unscrupulous behavior was the bane of many people’s existence. After Mr. Darcy forces Wickham to marry Lydia, Wickham is forever banished from Pemberley Hall. This creates a conflict, of course, when the rest of the Bennet family is in town for the holidays. They can neither leave the Wickhams out altogether nor invite George Wickham, so Lydia travels to Pemberley alone to join her sisters. Lydia is a fascinating character who becomes richer as I get older, and The Wickhams plumbs her potential to the core. We learn that Lydia is much smarter than she receives credit for and presents a silly facade to veneer over her unhappy marriage. Throughout The Wickhams, her true relationship to George is unveiled and great plot twists change their lives forever.
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| Photo by Rich Ryan |
The entire play takes place in the kitchen at Pemberley, where the main characters intermittently seek relief from the holiday festivities and stifling family judgement upstairs, and we get to meet a whole new cast of characters via Pemberley’s servants. This approach has the advantage of fleshing out a fuller picture of the true life (and class system) at Pemberley, and gives us a window into how George Wickham became the disastrously immoral character he is in the book. It’s not a sympathetic portrait but it’s a clear-eyed one, and it lends a surprising level of nuance to the original text. Several juicy side plots, including a blooming romance between Cassie, a new servant at Pemberley, and Brian, a long-time servant who knew Wickham intimately as a child; and general existence of housekeeper Mrs. Reynolds, who brings a sharp wit and a spot-on Mrs. Hughes vibe to the house; kept the audience enthralled as we whirled through this new story.
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| Photo by Rich Ryan |
The standout elements of this show were the impeccable comedic timing, directed to perfection by Christina Baldwin. This ship is run as tightly as a British naval frigate and the cast whips through jokes with casual ease. That cast is small but smart, by the way, and everyone serves their roles perfectly. Standouts include Nate Cheeseman, who miraculously manages to make George Wickham not only totally compelling but downright sympathetic at times; and Roshni Desai as Cassie, with a pitch perfect accent and plenty of sharp insight into the new household thanks to her friendship with Brian (setting a new rom-com standard in Jesse Lavercombe’s performance). Sun Mee Chomet is an excellent choice for Elizabeth Darcy and keeps the audience giggling and the charmingly flustered James Rodriguez in line as Mr. Darcy. Anglea Timberman anchors the action as Mrs. Reynolds, and I can’t imagine her in another role after the steadfast part she plays here. And Kelsey Didion brings surprising complexity to her role as Lydia, leading us to a sympathy we would never have expected from her character. In all it’s a very special cast who are clearly having the best time with this new work, and I would happily revisit Pemberley with them again and again.
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| Photo by Rich Ryan |
The devil is in the details and this production team is stellar. I kept finding new minutiae to delight me with every scene. As previously mentioned the lovely set, designed by Chelsea Warren, stays entirely in Pemberley’s kitchen. Glowy burnished copper tools grace the walls, a sturdy table centers the room, and a plethora of doorways and secret hallways allow us to watch the characters spy on frank conversations, hide from each other, and otherwise enjoy far more action than a static set has any right to generate. Sarah Bahr’s costume design draws clear contrast between the landed class and the servants, and a smart selection of props from John Novak (such as endless biscuits or steaming cups of tea) make this feel like a cozy working home. The real standouts are the lighting design by Marcus Dilliard and dialect coaching from Keely Wolter. I noticed out the gate that these are some of the best (and most consistently delivered) British accents I’ve heard on stage in recent years, and the lighting is an absolute marvel. Transitioning from shadowy firelight to candle-lit moments to the garish light of day, Dilliard brings a rare nuance to the lighting that really pushes this show to the next level.
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| Photo by Rich Ryan |
Jane Austen was one of the first authors I was truly obsessed with. Like many of us I devoured Pride and Prejudice (and subsequently the rest of Austen’s catalog) with a fervor that has not waned over the years. It’s one of the few books I’ve re-read multiple times, and I adore many of the clever re-imaginings that have graced popular culture over the years (such as the Bridget Jones series or Clueless). The Wickhams leads us into a new level of Austen fan fiction that has infinite depths to plumb, and I am so grateful to the Jungle for not only having the vision to commission a brand new work for the holidays (rather than re-hash the same tired stories we see everywhere else) but to use the opportunity to add new richness and understanding to a familiar story. I can see this series becoming a new cycle of holiday plays traveling the country every Christmas season, and it’s a world I won’t mind revisiting again and again. For more information about The Wickhams or to buy tickets before the show closes on December 30, click on this link.