<b>✭✭✭✭</b>✩
<b>by Hallie Burt and Kate Werneburg, directed by Tom Arthur Davis
Burt and Werneburg, Campbell House, 160 Queen St. West, Toronto
December 14-29, 2013;
December 18, 19, 20 & 21, 2014
</b>
“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance,” Charlotte to Elizabeth
<i>Elizabeth - Darcy</i>, one of the hits of the 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival, makes a welcome return this holiday season. Actors/creators Hallie Burt and Kate Werneburg’s task might seem impossible. They stage Jane Austen’s novel <i>Pride and Prejudice</i> (1813) in a period of only 75 minutes with only the two of them playing all the roles. Yet, it works beautifully. One reason is they are both fully in command of Austen’s elegant verbal style and early 19th-century sensibilities. Another reason is that having two women play all the roles brings to the fore two central aspects of the novel – one, that it presents a woman’s perspective on the world and, two, that role-playing itself is a central theme.
Of Hallie Burt’s five roles, that of the central figure Elizabeth Bennet is the plum part. She is an absolute delight in it and takes us on a course from the young woman’s instant dislike of Mr. Darcy, through her repeated tauntings of him, to her final understanding of his actions and her own prejudice towards him. Burt is also has memorable turns as Elizabeth’s father filled with wry humour towards his situation, the haughty Caroline Bingley and as the all-too-carefree Lydia, Elizabeth’s youngest sister.
Kate Werneburg well captures Mr. Darcy’s cold, unforthcoming nature that Elizabeth sees as pride and the growing interest in Elizabeth that she does not see even after he awkwardly professes his love for her. Of Werneburg’s eight other roles, she may be rather too much as Elizabeth’s excitable mother, but she is very funny as the unctuous clergyman William Collins, icily imperious as Lady Catherine de Bourgh and quite moving as Elizabeth’s friend Charlotte Lucas, who humbly defends her decision to accept Mr. Collins.
Both Burt and Werneburg are expert at switching from role to role with just a turn of the head and change of voice. Indeed, much of the fun is watching the two constantly transform themselves – this freedom in acting nicely contradicting the novel’s depiction of restraints on the roles people are allowed to play.
Tom Arthur Davis has ingeniously staged the play in the Campbell House Museum, where the audience, taking subtle hints from the stage manager and “patron shepherd” Steve Vargo, follows the actors from room to room. One can understand why Davis would like to use all the rooms available but it isn’t very likely that Mr. Collins would ever appear in Elizabeth’s bedroom, much less to propose to her, and is also unlikely that Elizabeth would ever be in the kitchen doing dishes or allow Darcy to speak to her there. The kitchen scene, however, does have the practical advantage of allowing the audience a chance to sit rather than stand for a change. There are numerous clever touches but the most delightful scene is probably the one in the upstairs ballroom where Elizabeth and Darcy find they have little to talk about, their conversation as intricate as the movements in their dance.
Burt and Werneburg’s careful adaptation covers all the major plot points of the novel yet does not feel like a rushed summary as so many stage adaptations of novels do. This is because the co-creators have so perfectly captured the spirit of the novel and the intimate setting gives us the sense, often literally, of peering over the shoulders of the characters as they go about their lives.
For a wonderful way to celebrate the bicentennial of Austen’s novel, to see the Campbell House and to immerse yourself in another world, <i>Elizabeth - Darcy</i> is a treat as entertaining as it is intelligent.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Hallie Burt and Kate Werneburg. ©2013 Oz John Tekson.
For tickets, visit <a href="http://www.burtandwerneburg.com">www.burtandwerneburg.com</a>.
<b>2013-12-19</b>
<b>Elizabeth - Darcy: An Adaptation of Pride and Prejudice</b>