Burgess Hill Theatre Club scores hit with Pride and Prejudice at Martlets Hall
I hadn't seen anything of Darcy and friends since the Sixties when the inspirational English teacher at Oakmeeds Comprehensive, Jack Denman, tried to infuse his unquenchable enthusiam for Pride and Prejudice into my young bloodstream before GCE examinations.
Nearly 45 years later the talented cast of Burgess Hill Theatre Club awakened my Sixties spirit with a performance of great wit and charm.
The superb Richard Conolly as cool but ultimately kind Darcy and Andy Squires as the ice-cold vicar Mr Collins beautifully illustrated the time chasm between the social and sexual formality surrounding the Bennet daughters and modern morals where sleeping together after a few dates hardly rates as the sort of shame that would give Mrs Bennet the vapours.
Talking of Mrs Bennet, and she did plenty of talking for herself, Mary Ward's nervy scheming and extremely funny character was a standout, matched in quality by Martin O'Hara's wonderfully laconic yet shrewd Mr Bennet.
This was a stage pairing from heaven for a director.
The young actors generally met well the tough demands in timing and diction that this play makes.
With writing letters, holding hands and pouring drinks the nearest to physical action the spotlight falls severely on any forgotten, stumbled, or mumbled punch lines and there were a few first night nerves.
Occasional sound system noises and a few bars of over-loud background music added to the challenge.
So many good performances abounded that it would be quicker to refer to the whole cast list.
Perhaps my only serious reservation was the casting of young student Chesney Jones as nasty Wickham.
For all his promising talent and application to the task, Chesney was just too nice; he neither looked nor sounded like like the sexual predator and scoundrel that was the feckless Wickham. More like the boy you'd love your daughter to marry.
The amiable Mr Bingley, perfectly portrayed by the outstanding, tall and handsome Andrew Davies, would have been more his line in a year or two.
The souls of the Bennet girls shone with some fine acting.
Pollyanna Brackenbury was a gloriously giddy Miss Lydia and Catherine Carpenter a beautiful, sweet, and naive Jane.
Sophie Jones, in my book, produced the performance of the evening as Elizabeth, her tonque as sharp as her wit, and her clever facial expressions speaking volumes without being over-stated.
The audience was clapping even before the curtain fell on the closing passionate clinch of Elizabeth and the melted glacier Darcy.
Romance still lives.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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