Pride and Prejudice – Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre

The annual open-air theatre at Grosvenor Park has, of late, sidestepped Shakespeare, both to bring in new audiences and because they’ve “done all the good ones.” Instead, they are showcasing new and edgy productions such as last year’s sell-out Gangs of New York and this year’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Twenty-twenty’s production of Pride and Prejudice has therefore been revived for 2025 presumably to fulfil the heritage quota. Happily, this chimes with Austen’s 250^th birthday.

However, this is not to say that it will only appeal to a vintage audience. Indeed, the youngest member in last night’s was only about 2 months old. Admittedly she did sleep through most of it… Not so the rest of us, teens through to antique relics, because matters of love, with all their machinations and misunderstandings, are, after all, timeless. And not least because the tight white breeches prove quite, um, distracting.

Of course, you know the story. Grosvenor Park gives us perhaps the edited highlights. Gone is Jane’s rain-drenched arrival at Netherfield Park, giving rise to a period of carefully contrived convalescence under the appreciative nose of Mr. Bingley. Gone too is the mortification of the bookish Mary, whose character is much lampooned in some productions, and for which kindness I was grateful.

I also found the portrayal of Mrs Bennett less cruel than is usual. She is written as an hysteric and often played as perfectly appalling. But last night, for the first time, I came to empathise with this mother of 5 girls, whose future is only made financially secure by their advantageous marriages and whose father appears largely indifferent to this. Maybe it’s because I’ve reached that age myself where I understand how a mother descends the household hierarchy as her children reach adulthood and becomes little but the butt of family jokes. Or perhaps it is testament to Victoria Brazier’s careful characterisation, allowing her Mrs B to be both hilariously yet justifiably single-minded in her matrimonial mission.

As well as this understated pathos, there is the drama of Lizzie and Darcy’s dalliance and the shock of Lydia’s seduction. But, by and large, the piece is played for laughs. There’s some comedy cross-dressing in which Howard Chadwick excels as the preposterously pompous and snobby Lady Catherine De Bourgh. And Ethan Reid gets to cavort clumsily as Collins the ridiculous cleric.

Like all the cast, he juggles a couple of roles and is also cast as Mr Collins’ polar opposite and rival for Lizzie – the stand-offish but impeccably principled Darcy. There is a clever deftness to the costume shorthand that enables him to perform this alchemy with merely the addition of a pair of spectacles and a dog collar. Similarly, Eddy Westbury plays both the cad and the good egg with a double turn as both Wickham and Bingley.

There is also, as is traditional in this venue, lots of music, carolled by the accomplished cast. The sweetly sung folksongs serve several functions. Not only do they mark the passage of time, with references to the changing of the seasons, but the harmonies prefigure the happy ending. But not only this, we come to appreciate that Jane Austen’s stage is not all Regency stately homes and ballrooms. In fact, her characters inhabit small, provincial, country worlds, where the rhythms of nature are a constant companion, and the impetus to mate is ever present.

On a balmy evening, where better to enjoy the cadences of this eternal love story, whilst you pop a cork and dip a chip?   I can say, without prejudice, that this production is the pride of Grosvenor Park.

Pride and Prejudice is running until 31^st August and tickets can be booked here: www.storyhouse.com

Reviewer: Miranda Green

Reviewed: 11th July 2025

North West End UK Rating: