The P&P-O-Meter
Alert Janeite Cynthia sent a link to a story in her hometown newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, that she found amusing and thought our readers would as well. The Pride and Prejudice-O-Meter gives you the opportunity to vote for your favorite theatrical interpretations of the P&P characters (and now that it will be posted on AustenBlog, we daresay the results will shortly become extremely skewed).
Cynthia also wrote of the recent production of P&P by the Milwaukee Rep, “I have to say this has to be one of the most successful plays the Rep has ever produced. I have talked to dozens of people of all stripes and levels of Austen appreciation, and they loved this production. It was sold out, or nearly so, for every performance.”
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I took the quiz and did my best to skew the results.
My husband and I attended this play. It was a lot of fun. Mr. Collins was very well done. Elizabeth Bennet wore the same plain white muslin gown the entire time and was never seen in a hat (although all her sisters wore them), which is strange, because she had a terrible case of hat head. So untidy, so blousy! Really, she looked almost wild! That would be the Keira Knightley influence. Turning the morning-after-the-proposal letter into a conversation was another 2005 influence that I didn’t like.
I thought they did a good job and they made it very funny. I’m always happy when Mr. Bennet gets to use all the funny lines that Jane Austen gave him. I hope more productions come to our area in the future. I’m especially hoping the Broadway P&P will do a run in Chicago before they hit Broadway.
I thought the Rep’s adaptation was wonderful. I especially liked the performances of Mr. Collins, Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Lizzy was good, but I thought she got a little too hysterical and loud at the end. Lydia’s performance was the only lowlight for me, her accent was horrible, “Oh Pa. Pa. I. Would. So. Love. To. Go. To. Lon. Dun. Town.” Dreadful!
Turning Darcy’s letter into a conversation worked for me in this adaptation, but maybe that’s because Grant Goodman’s Darcy also worked for me.
Thank You,margo for posting this.I just voted.
They totally left out the 1940 version of P & P with Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. I would’ve picked Olivier as the best Darcy.
I refuse to vote on principal, as they have slighted my countrymen David Rintoul and Malcom Rennie by not mentioning their respective Darcy and Mr Collins. Tina B, may I ask why you are blaming the 2005 film for turning the post-first-proposal letter into a conversation? It was a letter in that film, and although somewhat truncated actually got in one rather important factor omitted from the 1995 version, that Wickham after taking money in lieu of his promised living then tried to get the living anyway. Are you possibly thinking of Bride and Prejudice?
There is an abiding problem with the letter in any stage dramatisation where they can’t use voice-over. Pretty well every version I have seen on stage turns it into a conversation.
Melinda;
Yes and they forgot Greer Garson for Lizzy.
Kathleen,
You are right. I was thinking that scene at the temple when it is raining was the letter, but it was the proposal scene. I do remember the letter part now.
Glad this is getting people to vote.
We didn’t forget the 1940 or the 1980 versions, but I limited myself to the P&P adaptations of the last 15 years for several reasons. 1)I think the 95 version ushered a new generation of Austen adaptations 2) a more practical reason: getting the photos for the characters was difficult enough! You can’t imagine how many hoops I jumped through and how much time I spent trying to get images for that graphic. I thought I’d have to pull the plug at one point or at least completely omit B&P. Getting photos for the 1980 or 1940 verions would have been impossible.
But that’s one thing very few people even think of when they look at a newspaper.
Sorry, Kathleen, you’re not voting on principle. Perhaps you better understand our intentions and limitations.