“It’s like a runaway train every night so there’s no chance to get complacent. You need every pair of hands on deck until the show finishes,” playwright and actress Isobel McArthur explains.
“After all, Pride and Prejudice has 120 named characters, which we have reduced to 30 essentials, but with a cast of six that’s still a lot of multi role playing,” she adds. “You get quite sweaty and panting by the end.”
“In its leanest form, Pride and prejudice is witty, silly and funny and I wanted to reinstate that comedic tone”
And Isobel should know because having opened Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) in Glasgow, her adaption has proved such a success that it is now being co-hosted by theatres around the country, including the Oxford Playhouse, to ensure that we all get to see this dynamic adaption which brings Jane Austen kicking and screaming into the modern world.
The highly acclaimed production sees an all-female cast of servants playing all the characters, while emptying chamber pots and sweeping the grates, making sure those above stairs find their happy-ending.
So why so different? “Having watched all the TV and screen adaptions, I realised that they were at odds with the book itself; that it could be seen as starchy, intellectually exclusive and full of plummy jokes made my dukes in drawing rooms without any relevance to the lives of real people,” she says.
“Jane Austen’s characters are so multi-faceted, so recognisable and so human. She loved the ridiculousness of people. And so do we”
“Plus, because it has female leads and is a romance, Pride and Prejudice can also be seen as a female pursuit.
“And yet from page one of the book I realised those were the choices made by the adaptors themselves, whether in period dress or as zombie costumes, and that actually the novel is much more hilarious, accessible and relevant than that, with some majorly contemporary themes.
“In its leanest form Pride and Prejudice is witty, silly and funny and I wanted to reinstate that comedic tone,” she says.
And her benchmark? Her home town of Glasgow where the project initially took shape and debuted on a scorching hot summer day during the World Cup when Isabel knew that if anyone even turned up to the theatre, let alone enjoyed the show, then she was on to a winner.
And they did.
The standing ovation the cast received on that first scorching night, set the scene for what was to follow, with audiences up and down the country on their feet applauding Isabel’s work. “You always have doubts; have I made the right decisions. Should I have followed my instincts like that? Is anyone going to fine it funny. And then you can feel the audience following you and laughing, and that’s a wonderful moment,” she admits.
As for those worried that she will bastardise their favourite book, Isobel says: “You have to be in love with the book as a playwright to be able to share that revelation and love with the audience. So I can assure all those people who are worried – that it’s going to be OK. Everything is fine. We just give Pride and Prejudice a more contemporary tone and theatricality while keeping the sentiment.”
Is that something she was aware of then, this devotion to Austen’s work?
“We definitely have a responsibility to the audience in terms of Pride and Prejudice’s legacy, to create something dynamic, alluring, understandable, colourful and entertaining, while prompting some interesting questions and discussions afterwards,” she says.
The project began when Isobel was given an opportunity by Tron Theatre in Glasgow to bring something special to the main stage there, and a classic adaption seemed the most obvious choice.
As for featuring karaoke, Isobel says it was the best way to bring musicality to the production: “Everyone from Jarvis Cocker to Roy Orbison sang about the complications of falling in love, and karaoke is something everyone can relate to and recognise.
So why zero in on the six servants rather than Austen’s characters? “When I first read the book, it was at odds with my fundamental values. So instead we give the working class women the narrative to tell, and that was very important to me, because otherwise they are never centre stage even, though they enable the story to happen.
Coming to Oxford Playhouse all next week, Isobel says: “Every night is still a risk, so there is still that element of trepidation, because you want it to be special for everyone.”
“But we just love the experience of telling this story, and Jane Austen’s characters are so multi-faceted, so recognisable and so human. She loved the ridiculousness of people. And so do we.”
Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) is at Oxford Playhouse from Tuesday 10 – Saturday 14 March.
01865 305305 or www.oxfordplayhouse.com
