The Robinson Drama Department has put on many different shows, with their catalog exploring many different genres such as fantasy, musicals, and dramas. The newest stage production is an adaptation of the early 1800s novel Pride and Prejudice. The play follows an enemies to lovers story that explores how pride and preconceived notions can block true love.
The story starts off following the Bennet family, which consists of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and their five unmarried daughters: Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia. Mrs. Bennet’s biggest dream is to see them all happily married. When at a ball hosted by their friend, Mr Bingley where he dances and has fun with Jane. His friend, Darcy rejects a dance with Elizabeth thinking she is beneath him, which paints him in a negative light.
As the story progresses, Darcy ends up falling in love with Elizabeth because of her personality. His pride at the beginning of the story blocked him from seeing who Elizabeth really is. Throughout the play, Elizabeth also experiences character growth as she misjudges Darcy’s character and ends up seeing him for the man he really is by letting go of her initial prejudice.
The play is led by Lucas Simcox and Ella Brown as Darcy and Elizabeth, and they were both amazing in their roles. You can clearly see the passion and energy they brought to their performance. All of the actors displayed dedication, and I was impressed with all of the details they nailed with the characters. The accents, mannerisms and more. A character that stole the show with her humor was Mary, who was portrayed by Kira Gilligan. The character was used really well as comedic relief, especially at times when the play started to get a little boring.
That is one critique I have of the play, that the story isn’t that interesting.
The actors really carried the show as the story was really hard to follow at some points, and many times during the performance I thought, “why should I care about what happens to these characters?”. There is nothing that makes this story come off as anything more than a generic enemies to lovers story. I will give the play credit for paving the way for many romantic comedies and enemies to lovers stories of today, but the play is simply outdated when compared to modern tales of today. While the story wasn’t as entertaining as it could have been, the play was well directed, including some modern elements such as a dance break. The sets were well designed and thought out and despite there being some scenes that dragged on. The play was filled with details and well thought out direction that overall left me impressed.
Overall this play impressed me when it came to the performances and details, but the script and story fell flat for me and it didn’t have anything that made it stand out. This group of actors are very talented, and I hope that in the future the department picks better plays to produce.
Overall Rating: 6/10