The Virginian-Pilot previews PRIDE & PREJUDICE

Money and marriage drive Virginia Stage Company's β€œPride and Prejudice”

By David Nicholson
Jan 11, 2018
The Virginian-Pilot

Contemporary society can be β€œcynical and snarky,” said director Tom Quaintance, but people still love a good romance.

That’s the essence of Jane Austen, whose tales of money, marriage and love in 19th century Britain continue to fascinate audiences today.

β€œAmericans are crazy for Jane Austen,” said Quaintance, who’s directing an adaptation of the author’s β€œPride and Prejudice” at the Virginia Stage Company. Quaintance is producing artistic director of VSC.

β€œBoth money and love drive everything in this play,” he said, and β€œtrue love is found by the people who are not thinking primarily about money.”

Written in 1813, β€œPride and Prejudice” is Austen’s most popular novel and the subject of numerous adaptations for theater and film. This recent stage version was a collaboration by two theater directors, Joseph Hanreddy and J.R. Sullivan, whom Quaintance admired.

In an online interview, Hanreddy said, β€œOne of the things I’m coming away from this process with is realizing how contemporary (are) a lot of the ideas that are in Jane Austen ...” The gentry class that she wrote about is β€œvery much like the audience we have coming to our plays.”

Austen’s stories are set in Britain’s Regency period where the social structure was rigid, and marrying into a better, wealthier class was an essential part of the game.

In β€œPride and Prejudice,” Mr. Bennet is a man of modest means with five daughters to marry off. Under the British system, his estate will be inherited by a male cousin, so he needs to secure good marriages for his daughters before he dies.

Austen focuses on the relationship between Elizabeth, his second daughter, and a wealthy visitor named Mr. Darcy.

Lowell Byers, who is playing the role of Darcy, describes Elizabeth as β€œan educated woman with an opinion, which is what Darcy falls in love with.”

But Elizabeth is also an independent-minded woman who is not above turning down a marriage proposal, and her first impressions of Darcy are negative.

Refusing an offer of marriage was a scandalous act akin to a bomb exploding in the gossipy world these characters inhabit, Quaintance said. β€œElizabeth’s independence, and her refusal to marry, is dangerous to the entire family.”

Austen was a genius at poking fun at the class system she wrote about.

β€œThere’s a kind of skewering of the aristocracy and a real delight in what’s really going on under the language,” Quaintance said.

Marina Shay, who plays Elizabeth, also praised the source material. β€œMost of the dialogue is completely extracted from the book, and that is all you need. It’s completely delicious and elegant and brilliant.”

Quaintance supervises a cast of about 20 actors made up of Equity and non-union players.

β€œI find something incredible about doing a period piece that’s so accessible,” he said. β€œThe way people deal with relationships is the same.” These characters β€œare behaving in a completely recognizable way.”