Interview: Adrian Lukis on Reinventing His PRIDE & PREJUDICE Role in BEING MR. WICKHAM

Being Mr. Wickham, inspired by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, is currently running as part of the Brits Off Broadway Season at 59E59 through June 11, 2023. Adrian Lukis, who co-wrote the play with Catherine Curzon, returns to the role of Mr. Wickham after starring alongisde Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle and more in the acclaimed BBC TV adaptation. 

Being Mr. Wickham follows the titular character on the eve of his 60th birthday, providing a new perspective on Mr. Wickham and the life he's led, and the lives of Jane Austen's beloved characters.

BroadwayWorld spoke with Adrian Lukis about further exploring the famous character, what fans of Jane Austen can expect to see with Being Mr. Wickham, and much more. 

---

You starred as Mr. Wickham in the BBC TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. How does it feel to revisit this character in a different way?  

This Wickham is really a different creature to the one I played in 1995. Apart from the fact that I am nearly thirty years older, what I have tried to do in the writing is flesh out a man who is essentially, in Pride and Prejudice, little more than a springboard for the romance of Elizabeth and Darcy. The character of Wickham in the play is much more central (obviously) and so I feel less like I am revisiting a character, as inventing a new one.

You wrote the play with Catherine Curzon. What inspired you to write BEING MR. WICKHAM?

I was getting older and feeling a bit fed up with creaky knees etc. and wanted to write something about this annoying process! I had already written another Austen show and it occurred to me that if I could combine my interest in Regency England and my own misgivings about the inevitable ageing process as seen through one of the great cads of English literature, I might be on to something! Also of course, I wanted to see by understanding his story more fully, if it was possible to put up a credible defense of George Wickham. I think it is!

What has it been like for you as a writer and an actor getting to deeper explore a character from such a well-known work?

I write and rewrite. And then rewrite again! I try to write in the morning after breakfast when I am feeling fresh and rested, but the odd line has been penned after a glass or two! I knew that I had to, in effect, invent a man’s life. I took the bones of what we learn of Wickham from the novel and then set about expanding those stories. In one crucial perspective, I have reinterpreted the ‘living at Kympton’. Wickham’s memory of this incident differs profoundly from that of Darcy’s! In the play, it becomes one of the driving furies of Wickham’s sense of betrayal. But to answer your question more succinctly, I try to write interesting STORIES and then I hone and shape them for weeks.

Have you learned anything new about yourself as a person and an actor through playing this character?

It has been an absolute labor of love. To write this play and then perform it to appreciative audiences (and now in NYC!) is a joy.

Have you learned anything new about yourself as a person and an actor through playing this character?

I have. I have learned of the easy pleasure of talking directly to an audience. It’s almost like doing a stand up at times. Instead of playing ‘a character’, with this I feel almost as if I am playing myself, which is enormously freeing. I am I think a better actor for having performed this play.

What do you want to say to Pride and Prejudice fans who will be coming to see this play?

I know you all think I am a villain. Come and see the play and allow me to persuade you that perhaps, just perhaps, you’ve got me wrong...