7 February - 23 March 1991

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

World Premiere

by Jane Austen

adapted by James Maxwell

Sponsored by NatWest Bank

Mr Bennet DAVID ALLISTER
Mrs Bennet AVRIL ELGAR
Jane Bennet LUCY COHU
Elizabeth Bennet MELANIE THAW
Mary Bennet, Miss Jenkinson CAROLINE RYDER
Kitty Bennet FINTY WILLIAMS
Lydia Bennet HELEN McCRORY
Mr Gardiner MARTIN OLDFIELD
Charlotte Lucas KATE PAUL
Charles Bingley NIGEL HASTINGS
Caroline Bingley, Anne de Bourgh ABIGAIL THAW
Fitzwilliam Darcy RUFUS SEWELL
George Wickham BEN DANIELS
Mr Denny, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Gamekeeper DAN MAXWELL
Mr Collins, Coachman STEPHEN TINDALL
Lady Catherine de Bourgh GILLIAN GOODMAN

Director JAMES MAXWELL
Designer DAVID MILLARD
Musical Direction and Composition STEPHEN WARBECK
Lighting VINCE HERBERT
Sound REBECCA WATTS
Choreographer GERALDINE STEPHENSON

Sensitively adapted and delicately directed by James Maxwell...Melanie Thawis Elizabeth Bennet is a finely-drawn portrait...She is everything a Jane Austen heroine ought to be...Her scenes with Rufus Sewell's arrogant and handsome Darcy are magnetic...I also particularly enjoyed Avril Elgaris frettingly silly Mrs Bennet, David Allister as her nervously firm, long-suffering husband, Stephen Tindallis smarmy rector and Ben Danie's dashingly dastardly Wickham. It is romantic comedy of a very superior sort. Laugh, cry, sigh and enjoy.
Alan Hulme Manchester Evening News

James Maxwell preserves more than Jane Austen's language: he preserves her people and their world of strained, nervous sexuality and social intercourse with a tact I would not have imagined possible. It is gratifying that this production will tour widely: it deserves to be seen by as wide an audience as possible.
Michael Schmidt The Daily Telegraph

...James Maxwell in a rapidly moving kaleidoscopic version, directed by himself, has gone for broadcloth comedy with such success that it is the talk of the town...
Tim Yates The Times Higher Education Supplement

Following its run at the Royal Exchange, Pride and Prejudice went on tour in the companyis mobile theatre .