Period Drama goes Pop in the recordbreaking Pride and Prejudice (*sort of)!

The multi award-winning comedy Pride and Prejudice (*sort of) is breaking box office records across the country with its expert mix of top pop hits joining Jane Austen’s iconic tale of love and marriage! Make a vow to catch it at Blackpool Grand Theatre this May…

The award-winning Pride and Prejudice (*sort of) is a raucous Regency romcom that’s not to be missed when it pays a call at Blackpool Grand Theatre from Tuesday 2 to Saturday 6 May.

The acclaimed comedy drama from renowned playwright and director Isobel McArthur is a unique and audacious retelling of Jane Austen’s classic love story featuring a string of pop classics and is already smashing box office records as it tours the country!

Men, money and microphones will be fought over in this irreverent but affectionate adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, where the stakes for the Bennetts, the Bingleys and the infamous Mr Darcy couldn’t be higher when it comes to romance.

This ‘smart, laugh out loud funny’ show also features a sensational soundtrack of top pop classics including Young Hearts Run Free, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and You’re So Vain. It’s the 1800s. It’s party time. Let the ruthless matchmaking begin…

Isobel McArthur won both the Evening Standard Emerging Talent Award and The Olivier Award for Best Comedy or Entertainment in 2022 for her ‘profoundly joyous’ retelling of the legendary period drama and in the first four weeks of the 2023 tour the poptastic production has played 32 performances to 32 standing ovations! We spoke to Isobel before her excitingly unique take on the classic love story makes a welcome stop at Blackpool’s Grand.

Austen’s original tale is so well loved as a book, television series and film, can you give us an insight into what makes this version of Pride and Prejudice, sort of?

‘I suppose what I was aware of when watching many of the other adaptations of this novel was a certain po-facedness which has taken hold over the past two-hundred years. For whatever reason the humour of Austen’s novel has repeatedly been side-lined in the interest of… I don’t know - something so reverent that it’s become positively solemn. The original book is a riot. So, this adaptation – told by the servants, using karaoke - is in the spirit of Austen herself and the way she writes. It’s funny, feminist, and front footed.’

Where did you first have the inspiration for Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of)?

‘I had a 50p copy of the novel from the second-hand bookshop below my flat in Glasgow. I was in my late twenties and had never read any Austen before. I assumed it would be starchy, unrelatable stuff – all red-nosed dukes and drawing rooms. How wrong I was. Opening at page one, I started laughing. And, crucially, not the knowing laugh of a literature graduate (although I am one, for my sins) – rather, the belly-laugh of a human being who recognised in the matriarch of this novel a woman I’d encountered a hundred times in my own life. I knew instantly that in this book were a set of observations and a cast of characters that needed to be shared with as many people as possible. ‘Don’t believe what you’ve seen at the movies!’ I wanted to shout, ‘Austen is a right laugh!’

Was there a favourite character to write when you were developing the show? What made them so enjoyable to tap into?

‘Frankly, there isn’t a dud in this book. Austen is as incisive an observer of human nature as I have ever come across in literature or drama. Although the puzzle of the multi-rolling in this show (we have a cast of just 5) was a hell of a nut to crack at my desk, Austen’s dialogue is such a gift to the playwright. Right enough, it is important to modernise, anachronise, adjust - so that a contemporary audience know at all times what it being said and what is happening - but truly, you could write five cracking plays based on this novel without ever repeating yourself. It’s gold dust, this stuff.’

What are the physical challenges of the show, given the number of roles everyone plays?

‘It’s a run-away train for the performers! There are 119 named characters in the original Pride & Prejudice. We have reduced this to an essential 18 in our production – played by just 5 actors. Lightning-fast costume changes are required from the cast throughout. They also play the instruments, sing the songs and perform all the scene changes.

However – this is not merely in the interest of economy. In our adaption, the Pride & Prejudice story is told by the female servants of a Regency Era household. During the Napoleonic wars, these women really did it all. They facilitated the making of art for centuries. And so, demonstrating the work of the ensemble and the graft of those individuals who are so seldom at the centre of any period story felt an important gesture to make. Without these overlooked and undervalued servants of households like Austen’s – we wouldn’t even have the music, portraiture, or novels of the period (including this one).’

It’s been some two-hundred years since the publication of the novel, what elements did you want to feel very of their time in the piece, and what elements did you want to feel

up to date?

‘Story-wise, it isn’t a question of anything feeling old or contemporary per se because the novel remains so relevant. In our show, Pride & Prejudice is set to a pop-karaoke soundtrack. I began compiling a list of songs at the start of the writing process and discovered quickly that all good artists come to the same conclusions about love. When Jarvis Cocker tries to define it – he does so in the same terms as Austen. It’s no coincidence. Some things just endure.

Just as pertinently however, this novel also remains relevant because women’s struggle for equality is something we’re still in the thick of. And, as the women telling this story are working class women, the gesture of playing every part constitutes an act of doubly transgressive triumph. When I put on Mister Darcy’s jacket, my servant character occupies a space of the high-status male that she never could otherwise. And I myself, as an actor, get to play a character I’d never ordinarily get a sniff at.

Aesthetically, however, when it comes to old and new - it’s a free-for-all! The design, music and tone borrow from a full two hundred years of romantic history so expect things to remind you, your folks and your grannie of when you first fell for someone.’

The show won Best Comedy or Entertainment Play at the 2022 Olivier Awards, what was that feeling like for you?

‘I think we’re all extremely proud of our collective achievements with this show. It first played at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow in 2018 with a two-week run planned. To be still doing it now is testament to the hard work and talent of the company and proof not only that audiences respond to generous entertainment but also that all-female casts with regional accents don’t detract from historical or literary pieces but, rather, enhance them.’

Do you have to be an Austen afficionado to enjoy the show?

‘Not at all. You don’t need to know a single thing about Jane Austen or her books. In fact – please don’t go looking up a synopsis. Theatre should not require homework. If you really like it, you can always go and read the novel afterwards.’

Have you ever received a piece of advice that has stuck with you, or is there a piece of advice that you’d like to pass on?

‘If there’s one over-arching thing that keeps me right, I suppose it’s to continue to ‘put myself’ in the audience. It might sound so obvious but, keep asking as you write or make – does it still make sense now? Is it still exciting now? If I were sat there – what would I understand at this point?

Satisfying what an audience needs often means including things which feel blunt or clunky or obvious, having to work much harder – or just doing away with parts of your work you are fond of. But if the audience aren’t looked after, the whole endeavour is futile.’

Pride and Prejudice is arguably the most famous, most imitated and most adapted of Jane Austen’s novels and is consistently voted as one of the best-loved books ever written. So why not curl up with a copy and fall in love with the story of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr Darcy all over again before booking your tickets to see this riotous retelling of Austen’s legendary love story.

Isobel McArthur’s awardwinning Pride and Prejudice

(*sort of) is at Blackpool Grand Theatre from Tuesday 2 to Saturday 6 May with evening and matinee performances.

Tickets from £18.50 with tickets available for 18-26 year olds at just £15.50

Visit blackpoolgrand.co.uk for full show listings and bookings or call the box office on: 01253 290 190 for bookings and further information.

Listings

Pride and Prejudice (*sort of)

Tue 2 to Sat 6 May: 7.20pm

Thu & Sat matinee: 2.30pm

Grand Theatre, 33 Church Street, Blackpool FY1 1HT n 01253 290 190 d blackpoolgrand.co.uk f @blackpoolgrand t @Grand_Theatre i grandtheatrebpl

Camp RUGBY

Camp NETBALL

Juniors

14th-17th Aug 2023

Seniors

21st-24th Aug 2023

Juniors & Seniors

15th - 17th Aug 2023

Camp TENNIS Camps available between 18th July & 4th Aug 2023

Seniors only*

Ages 8-18

* Tennis day option only

For boys and girls

Tel: 01254 827270