Review Roundup: PRIDE & PREJUDICE at Long Wharf Theatre - What Did the Critics Think?

Long Wharf Theatre presents Pride and Prejudice, written by Kate Hamill, adapted from the classic Jane Austen novel, and directed by Jess McLeod. Performances begin on Wednesday, November 27, 2019 for a limited run through December 22, 2019. Opening night is set for Wednesday, December 4, 7:30 PM on the Claire Tow Stage in the C. Newton Schenck III Theatre (222 Sargent Drive, New Haven, CT).

Let's see what the critics are saying...

Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant: Where the Long Wharf does come in for particular praise is in the casting and design. They make the play funnier, sassier, sillier and more modern. In Gerardo Díaz Sánchez's wonderfully insane set design, everything on the stage - the floor, the walls, the furniture, the railings of the banisters - have the exact same loud pink flowery pattern. It's the play's first big joke about cultural conformity.

E. Kyle Minor, New Haven Register: Kate Hamill's decidedly feminist riff on Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," currently strolling amok at Long Wharf Theatre, is rebellious, radical and revealing. Hamill awakens theatergoers' perspective by stripping the corsets from Austen's tightly constricted female characters to liberate their hearts' passion and expression. Male actors, in turn, don the women's garb with equally liberating results. The play deliciously challenges gender expectations, privilege and the virtual caste system implemented to keep our demure women folk embroidering in the parlor.

Fred Sokol, Talkin' Broadway: Hamill's Pride and Prejudice, as interpreted by McLeod and enlivened through zestful performances, is as amusing as it is unique. On the page, Austen's novel might be quietly comedic, but the current rendering, Long Wharf's second straight outright winner, is audacious and laugh-out-loud fare. Actors are often coming and going-fortunately, the one rear door isn't wooden; otherwise, the commotion of sound might obliterate dialogue. Call the production a thoughtful and well-executed farce. Nothing is random, nothing is stagnant.