Pride and Prejudice Prequel for Newcastle

Mr Bennet’s Bride, a new play by Newcastle based playwright Emma Wood, has its premiere at Newcastle Theatre Company from March 8.

An original period comedy, based on Mr and Mrs Bennet from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, this play explores these characters earlier in their lives, particularly concerning itself with how this ill-matched couple met and decided to marry. In the late eighteenth century, marriage is a business transaction as much as a love affair – the family all take a part in the proceedings. With the shadow of the entail to the Collins family looming large, pressure mounts on the young Mr Bennet to find a suitable match – but his unwillingness to play by the rules sets in motion a series of events that are both comic and at times moving.

Since receiving the award for Best New Play at the City of Newcastle Drama Awards for her first play, Water Child, Wood, has gone on to pen this ‘quite extraordinary and individual’ piece (quote by Aarne Neeme).

Influences don’t get any earlier than Emma’s first encounter with Jane Austen.

“Funnily enough, my parents were planning to call me Emily while Mum was pregnant, but during the pregnancy she read Emma by Austen and changed her mind. Although Emma is far from my favourite heroine, I do like the name, and I guess the story just shows that I came from a fairly literary family. Mum and dad always encouraged us to read, especially classics, from a young age. I remember reading Lorna Doone at probably far too young an age and being haunted by a scene featuring someone drowning in quicksand. I think my command of language was way ahead of my understanding of the world, so I probably read a lot of books before I was old enough to appreciate them - including Pride and Prejudice. Then I revisited many as an adult - not Lorna Doone though - and finally understood the themes as well! I never realised it at the time, but both my parents are very well spoken, with a bit of a penchant for formal and rather old fashioned language, so I was absorbing that all the time, and it really helped when I wrote Mr Bennet's Bride - the words just rolled off the tongue because of the environment I had grown up in.”

What inspired Emma to write Mr Bennet’s Bride?

“I was compelled to write the story because the idea almost demanded it. There are many prequels to P&P, many of which are not very satisfying, but I think Mr and Mrs Bennet are two of the most loved characters in the novel, and deserve our attention. To my knowledge there is no prequel, so the play has the advantage of originality. And because the description of their life before the novel opens is so scant, it gave me so much room to imagine.”

Newcastle Theatre Company selected Mr Bennet’s Bride for their 2014 subscription season, with multi award-winning director Julie Black to head the project. Black won the award for Best Director at last year’s City of Newcastle Drama Awards (for directing the first amateur production of The Phantom of the Opera in NSW).

“Julie Black is an incredibly cheerful and encouraging presence,” says Emma, “but also knows exactly what she wants from her actors and makes sure they deliver. She casts well, which is the most important thing, and has such wide contacts in the community that her presence brought actors to NTC who have not worked there before, which will be a treat for audience, as well as some of our finest regular actors.”

That cast of local actors features Lance Hawkins, Dean Blackford, Tracey Gordon, Dianne Williams, Derek Fisher, Alison Cox, Cassandra Griffin, Malcolm Young, Alison Murphy and Stephanie McDonald.

Mr Bennet’s Bride will premiere at Newcastle Theatre Company from 8-22 March 2014. Performances will be staged Wednesday, Friday and Saturdays at 8pm, with matinees on Sun 9^th and Saturday 15^th at 2pm.

Bookings: (02) 4952 4958. 

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