Lizzy, Darcy & Jane

In an original subversion of Jane Austen’s role in creating the characters, backgrounds, settings, plot, and witty dialogues of Pride and Prejudice, Joanna Norland’s Lizzy, Darcy & Jane introduces the notion of the reciprocal effects that the novel’s chief characters might have on Austen and her own love life were they able to escape the confines of the book and enter into our world — and the consequences in motivating Austen to alter key moments in the novel.  The play re-uses many pieces of dialogue from the novel in new contexts, thereby altering their author’s intent in often amusing ways.

With a set bridging two worlds — that of the writer and that of the changeable creations of her imagination — and fine direction, REP’s production maintained a pace that kept the surprises flowing easily, incorporating unexpected changes in character and plot just when we thought we could predict what would happen next.  The cast carried the entire play without missing a beat, and conversation and action came across as natural despite the formality of the social niceties.  Outstanding for the realism they offered were Lydia Milosavljevic, as Jane Austen and Jane Bennet, and Dylan Hayley Rosenthal, as Elizabeth Bennet — both in the promise of fulfilment of their respective romances and in the frustrations of love denied.


For all fans and potential fans of Jane Austen’s wry comedies of manners and observations on her times, REP’s delivery of Norland’s Lizzy, Darcy & Jane offers a diverting couple of hours in which it’s possible to learn how to engage in just about any social situation with the presence of mind that arises naturally from good breeding.

John P. Harvey

Image: [L–R] Sterling Notley, Lydia Milosavljevic, Elaine Noon, Dylan Hayley Rosenthal, and Rachel Hogan, in Lizzy, Darcy & Jane.  Photographer: Alexandra Pelvin.