Previews: PRIDE & PREJUDICE PART 2: NAPOLEON AT PEMBERLY at Westport Country Playhouse

Get ready for something truly epic. Westport Country Playhouse will present the world premiere of Ken Ludwig’s Pride & Prejudice Part 2: Napoleon at Pemberly and it’s directed by the legendary Emily Mann. A worldclass playwright, a top-notch director, an ever-popular book, and a perfect venue, especially for this play. It doesn’t get better than this.

We’ll see any play written by Ludwig, one of the most prolific and popular contemporary playwrights. In the past few years, Fairfield County theater goers have seen his farces Lend Me a Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo, The Fox on the Fairway, and The Gods of Comedy in various local theaters. Ludwig’s newest play, Pride & Prejudice Part 2: Napoleon at Pemberly, will give theater lovers another dimension of his extensive talent. He doesn’t just come up with hilarious original plots. He has written many shows based on stories and plays by Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur, Shakespeare, and others.

Writer, director, and actor Mann has won numerous major awards and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Ludwig has worked with Mann on more projects than with anyone else, and they’re long-time good friends. Mann says, “He’s a consummate professional.”

So how did Ludwig put the now married Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet together with Napoleon? As a playwright, Ludwig is an avid reader, and he knew something that most people don’t. Jane Austen set her novel during Regency Era and the Napoleonic Wars. Austen’s brothers fought in the Napoleonic Wars – two in the Navy and two domestically in British militias. It is estimated that Pride and Prejudice was set in the early 1810s. In 1815, the British captured Napoleon and held him somewhere in Britain before he was exiled. Of course, historians don’t know for sure that he was in Meryton, but the dates fit. So why not? Theater is about imagination as well as expanding your horizons.

Both Mann and Ludwig love Shakespeare. Mann has done only four Shakespeare plays professionally, but she would love to do more, particularly As You Like It. When she directs a known play, she makes it fresh by treating it as a completely new production. She adds that she changes “a word here or there” because “some centuries don’t work.” The context is there, but the lines run smoothly. She has masterfully cut a long play such as Romeo and Juliet by a third.

 Ludwig wrote the madcap comedy Shakespeare in Hollywood as a play and How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare, a popular bestselling book that adults also enjoy. He notes that children are good at memorizing rhymes, and Shakespeare’s plays can be naturally easy for them because of the rhymes. He recalls that when his daughter was in first grade, her teacher taught the class a few lines of Shakespeare and he was intrigued. Each weekend they would read some Shakespeare together. A few years later, he did it with his son. Now that’s spending quality time with your kids.

Some people have resisted seeing Shakespeare because they remember slogging through Julius Caesar or Henry IV, Part 1 in high school and not understanding them. Ludwig notes that “standard plays are always taught first. Julius Caesar is not fun. That doesn’t serve the kids or serve anyone.” Then they’re intimidated by Shakespeare. Mann also observes that “Many English teachers teach Shakespeare as literature, not theater.” That makes sense. Teachers, take note of what they say about Shakespeare.

Fast forward to the early 19th century for the comedy Pride & Prejudice Part 2: Napoleon at Pemberly. “It’s a lot of fun to be in the room with [the characters],” says Ludwig. “Elizabeth is probably the greatest heroine…she’s enchanting and wonderful and witty and intelligent…. I enjoyed writing it so much…. I got to live with them.”

Mann says “It’s a perfect family show [that’s] very funny…. There are farce elements, but it’s a smart comedy of time and manners.” She notes that there is a lot to think about, including Napoleon, history, justice, and the class system.” She calls Reg Rogers (Napoleon), Carson Elrod (Mr. Collins/Major Hudson Lowe), and Kristine Nielsen (Lady Catherine de Bourgh) “comic geniuses. It’s like a master class in comedy…. The other actors are astoundingly gifted performers.”

Fun facts: In addition to having a BA in Music Theory, Ludwig has two law degrees (JD and LLM). Who knew?

Also, there is a Connecticut connection. Ludwig wrote the comedy-mystery, The Game's Afoot, about Connecticut actor William Gillette, who was known for playing Sherlock Holmes. If you haven’t seen his extraordinary home Gillette’s Castle in East Haddam yet, plan a trip for it.

Pride & Prejudice Part 2: Napoleon at Pemberly runs from October 20th to November 7th at Westport Country Playhouse, 25 Powers Court, Westport. For tickets, call (203) 227-4177 or visit www.westportplayhouse.org.

Photo credit: Matt Pilsner

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