A hilarious Pride and Prejudice hits the stage

Pride and Prejudice ★★★★
Lyric Theatre, QPAC, until March 9

Jane Austen never goes out of style, but we are surely experiencing Peak Austen right now. Bridgerton’s fourth season has been announced; drunken parody Plied and Prejudice played to 12,000 people last year in Northshore Brisbane; and a new Bridget Jones film (albeit, with her beloved Mark Darcy deceased) just opened in cinemas.

Now, in the year of Austen’s 250th birthday, we have Queensland Theatre’s lavish and delightful new production of her most popular book, adapted by two Patrick White Award winners, Lewis Treston (previously the author of a gay take on the tale, Hubris and Humiliation) and Wendy Mocke (a Papua New Guinean multidisciplinary artist).

Under the bonnet: Jane (Perry Mooney) and Bingley (William Carseldine) take a turn while the family looks on.Credit: Morgan Roberts

While Mocke and Treston hit all the plot novel’s points and classic lines, you can’t accuse them of over-reverence. They’ve written plenty of their own fresh rom-com zingers, adding modern sass to the novel’s story of a woman’s search for love and respect within the harsh economics of the Regency marriage market.

Co-directors Bridget Boyle and Daniel Evans have done their utmost to make the story accessible. They’ve leaned into the comedy, and their colourblind casting gives the piece a Bridgerton vibe. So does Guy Webster’s thrilling music, which backs strings and piano with house beats (there are some lashings of Gaga and Eilish in there as well). Dance sequences choreographed by Nerida Matthaei give the show massive injections of energy and sexuality.

Newcomer Maddison Burridge is a perfect Elizabeth, the heroine’s intelligence and wit radiating from her megawatt smile. Skilled at repartee and physical comedy, Burridge is nothing like anyone you’ve ever seen play the part – but she completely owns it.

Maddison Burridge (Elizabeth) and Andrew Hearle (Darcy) play the central characters in the classic story of changing your manners and your mind.Credit: Morgan Roberts

On the other hand, as the proud Mr Darcy, Andrew Hearle resembles Colin Firth in looks and taciturn air of distraction, and even gets a nod to the famous “wet-shirt” scene from the BBC version. Literally nobody is going to be upset about that.

Courtney Cavallaro, the scheming maid from last year’s Queensland Theatre curtain-raiser Gaslight, excels as horndog, loose-cannon Bennet sister Lydia. As you’d expect, Gael Ballantyne serves up comic gold as both husband-seeking missile Mrs Bennet and super-snob Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

What you might not expect is how acidly funny Amy Ingram is as Mr Bingley’s arrogant sister, whose disdain for Elizabeth is an armour against her feelings for Darcy, or how quietly moving Ingram is as Lizzie’s best friend Charlotte Lucas, facing old-maid status at 27 and determined to avoid it with the help of the odious Mr Collins (Cameron Hurry).

“Plain”, awkward sister Mary Bennet (Chenoa Deemal) is normally a marginal figure of fun, but here she’s given an enjoyable bit of agency and shrewdness. Versatile Daphne Chen (Kitty, Anne and Georgiana) and endearingly feckless Bryan Probets (Mr Bennet) round out the dozen-strong cast.

Christina Smith’s superb set design fringes the stage with a rambling English garden, a reminder of the impact of nature and the seasons on a country lifestyle, circa 1800.

And the frocks? Smith and her army of costumiers and milliners justify the ticket price alone, from the soaring peacock feather on Lady Catherine’s hat to the shiny gold epaulets on the redcoat uniform of duplicitous Mr Wickham (Jeremiah Wray).

It’s a shame the on-again, off-again, on-again romance between Lizzie’s older sister Jane (Perry Mooney) and Mr Bingley (William Carseldine) gets pushed to the sidelines. In a rocket-paced, farcical production, it would not have hurt to have injected a tad more shading and sincerity into this plot line.

Still, the sunny feminism of Pride and Prejudice speaks loud and clear 222 years later, no matter how many pratfalls get in the way. Purists might deplore a lack of propriety, but no one will hear them over the roars of laughter.