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Pride & Prejudice
Feb. 24th, 2014 08:56 amOver the weekend my parents and I went to see a stage adaptation of Pride & Prejudice. It was odd, but excellently done: the actors had the whole audience in stitches, particularly Mr. Bennet, Mr. Collins, and Mary. (I always feel a bit bad for Lizzie's bookish, priggish sister Mary. Jane & Lizzie are best friends, and Kitty & Lydia are best friends, and Mary is in the middle all alone! No wonder she took refuge in books.)
Rather than just have the actors speak the dialogue from the book, they also quoted many of Jane Austen's character descriptions. Beforehand I didn't see how this could work, but actually it worked well: I could always tells which parts were dialogue because the other characters reacted to them (and not to the descriptions), and it kept in many of Austen's more pointed observations.
I don't think I've seen any other adaptation that captured how funny Austen is. So much of that is contained in her ironic observations about the interactions between people, which are hard to work into an adaptation.
I don't think this method would work in a film adaptation. Having the characters break character would be jarring in a film in the way that it wasn't in a play. I think. Perhaps because plays already demand that their audiences not just suspend their disbelief, but lend their imagination to the play - particularly if it's on a minimalist set? And I think there's something about the energy of having actors right there in the room that can smooth over things that would be bumpy without that physical presence.
Rather than just have the actors speak the dialogue from the book, they also quoted many of Jane Austen's character descriptions. Beforehand I didn't see how this could work, but actually it worked well: I could always tells which parts were dialogue because the other characters reacted to them (and not to the descriptions), and it kept in many of Austen's more pointed observations.
I don't think I've seen any other adaptation that captured how funny Austen is. So much of that is contained in her ironic observations about the interactions between people, which are hard to work into an adaptation.
I don't think this method would work in a film adaptation. Having the characters break character would be jarring in a film in the way that it wasn't in a play. I think. Perhaps because plays already demand that their audiences not just suspend their disbelief, but lend their imagination to the play - particularly if it's on a minimalist set? And I think there's something about the energy of having actors right there in the room that can smooth over things that would be bumpy without that physical presence.
