Jane Austen’s Advent – Day 20 – A Christmas Review

For today’s Jane Austen Advent Calendar post, I am going to share with you something I experienced a few weeks ago. I was able to step into Pemberley and share in the Christmas festivities with Darcy and Elizabeth, admire the beautiful drawing room, enjoy watching our favorite couple interact with family, friends, and each other, and wish I could own just one of the gorgeous regency gowns. (The men were all nicely attired, as well.) No, I was not pulled into one of the many wonderful Christmas books published this year, but was watching a stage presentation.

Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley is a combination of two things I love most – Pride and Prejudice and Christmas. My husband and I joined several others from JASNA St. Louis (and many others) and went to the performance here in St. Louis at the Repertory Theater. I thought I would share a little about it.

I had been looking forward to see this play since early September, when I first heard about it. The play was written by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon and we performed in only three theaters last year, and eight this year. St. Louis was fortunate to be one of those eight.

MB:CaP takes place two years after Pride and Prejudice ends. The characters in this story were for the most part the characters we are all intimately familiar with: Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy, Charles and Jane Bingley, Mary Bennet, Lydia Wickham, and a short appearance by Anne de Bourgh. There was one additional new character to whom we were introduced:  Arthur de Bourgh, a cousin of Anne’s, who (surprisingly) has become heir to Rosings, as Lady Catherine has died.

The Darcys have opened their home to Elizabeth’s family. (Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, as well as Kitty arrive later – we never see them.)

Arthur de Bourgh is a surprise visitor, arriving straight from Oxford. A very predictable and awkwardly fun romance begins to bud between Mary and the studious and shy de Bourgh. I found myself laughing much more than I had anticipated as the two struggle to come to terms with their attraction to each other once they discover they have similar interests (including a favorite book the two of them just happen to carry with them).

The play is rife with humor and nods to Jane Austen and the events she penned in Pride and Prejudice.  It was fun to hear Darcy and Bingley give de Bourgh advice on how to let Mary know his feelings. “Did it work?” He asks. The two men look at each other and shrug, saying something like, “Eventually.”

What I liked: When I stepped into the theater, I was amazed at the set. I felt as though I had stepped into Pemberley (see the picture above). I was a little worried when I saw the Christmas tree, but they did right by it. Elizabeth had decided to adopt the German tradition, much to the surprise of everyone who walks in and sees the tree in the room. (I did the same thing in my book, Pemberley Celebrations: The First Year, but in that book, it had been the late Mr. Darcy who began the Christmas tree tradition he had seen when he had traveled to Germany.)

I loved the costumes and felt they were beautiful and very appropriate for the regency time period, however when Anne de Bourgh arrives, she is not in mourning, despite her mother’s recent death.

As I mentioned before, I enjoyed the humor and nods to Pride and Prejudice. I was also very pleased with the cast. I think they all carried off their roles quite well. I was delighted with the excellent performances of Darcy, Elizabeth, and Arthur de Bourgh. Mary had improved a little in her character from two years earlier, but Lydia was just as annoyingly flirtatious. The only character that I felt was not quite who we envision was Anne de Bourgh, whose entrance later in the play had me somewhat confused. She came in so boisterously that at first I thought she was Mrs. Bennet.

Although it was expected, I enjoyed the snow falling outside the windows at the end of the play. I had whispered to my husband during the intermission, “They better have it snow!”

What I didn’t like: There were a few things that one could take issue with, but they were not enough to ruin my enjoyment. Jane Bingley is quite pregnant, and I am certain she would not have traveled in her advanced state. And I never quite figured out if she came from Netherfield, for we know that she and Bingley moved to a home thirty miles from Pemberley a twelvemonth after their wedding. There was a very minimal reason for her to be pregnant, as it brought some resolution to Lydia in her unhappily married state, but I think they could have worked it out some other way. And finally, the biggest blunder was having Arthur de Bourgh heir of Rosings, which we know, in fact, was Anne. (In this ‘variation’ Anne only inherits a fortune.) I thought they could have worked around that, as well. I will not give away any spoilers here, but there is something that Miss de Bourgh announces when she comes to Pemberley, much to the surprise of everyone, especially Arthur. But I think if they had given him his own estate, she could have declared the same thing.

All in all, I enjoyed it and would certainly go see it again. Hopefully next year it will be performed in more theaters and many more will get a chance to see it.

Here is a picture of me and some of the other JASNA-St. Louis ladies, taken outside the auditoriu

Have any of you seen the play? What were your thoughts? I would love to hear them!