Prejudice & Pride – 15 July 2023
Prejudice & Pride, a playful off Broadway musical, takes Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice and boldly flips it on its head. Remarkably, despite every attempt to upend the gender norms that are always spoken of as a product of their time, this fun folk musical concludes with love, romance, and happily ever after.
The first act of the show asked the question: what would it feel like if Jane Austen’s women behaved the way her men do, and of course the converse. In this act, male protagonist Bennett Longborn is shy and withdrawn. He’s interested in the mysterious, wealthy Darcy Fitzwilliams, but plagued by the restraint and shyness characteristic of Austen’s heroines. He muddles over how to respond to Darcy, when her coldness and unkind nature are somehow still attractive to him. He cries to his family and is inhibited by convention and frustration, resulting in an inability to conduct himself when intimidated by Darcy’s elusiveness.
I wanted this whole scenario to feel normal; I wanted to believe that, in 2023, our world is progressive enough that seeing this kind of gender reversal would not be impactful. But watching poor blushing men await marriage proposals from rich, fiercely independent women who mistreat them was uncomfortable.
Act two went one step further, transporting Bennett and Darcy’s gender-flip into today’s world. Featuring scenes evoking the January 6 Insurrection with women as criminal masterminds, manipulating the helpless, meek men too simple to fully understand what was going on around them. This act was even more absurd and felt even more uncomfortable, neatly positing, for audience consideration, that the world hasn’t changed as much since Jane Austen’s 1813 world as we would like to think it has. The happily ever after ending was disturbing, having watched Darcy’s cruelty to Bennet for two hours. Yet with the genders flipped, it would have felt normal, maybe even sweet. I find that chilling.
A quick note regarding the theatre conventions of the show: I think the audience would have been more receptive had the actors not also been musicians. Sometimes that works well in a show, and, in this one, it felt like the performers were spread a little thin. Playing multiple roles, multiple instruments, and also fulfilling multiple creative team roles, this show was built on the backs of the dedicated few. It would have been amazing if some of these hard-working creatives could have stepped off stage and directed others, incorporated the insights of people outside the inner circle of the show’s development, and sought out other perspectives to strengthen the staging. I saw this show in previews, and it was still finding its way, but I believe with a larger team and a little polishing, Prejudice & Pride has a lot of potential. I hope to see more from Sam Wright in particular.
Pages on Stages 