02 Jun The Pantaloons are bringing Pride & Prejudice to Essex
English touring theatre group, The Pantaloons, are celebrating the reopening of the United Kingdom social scene by bringing the stage production of Jane Austin’s Pride & Prejudice to theatres across the country.
The show will begin in mid-June at the Brighton Open Air Theatre before moving on to shows at the RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Essex on 18 June, and on to the likes of Hampshire, London, Gloucestershire, Devon Somerset, and Nottingham, to name just a few in a nearly three-month tour that ends in September.
The Pantaloons are most famous for doing open-air productions of William Shakspeare plays, so they will undoubtedly be well prepared to take on a story as beloved as Pride & Prejudice. The group was founded in 2004, and their first-ever performance was an all-male, open-air production of As You Like It at a theatre in Kent.
They kept themselves busy throughout 2020 when most theatres around the UK were closed by producing a crowd-funded radio play by their fans. To date, it is the only recorded version of a performance the group has done and serves to ensure the actors stayed on top of their game.
The book Pride & Prejudice is one of the most popular romantic novels ever written. It was penned in 1813 by Jane Austin. It follows the story of Elizabeth Bennet as she learns to make considered decisions before making judgements and that there is a difference between absolute goodness and someone pretending to be good.
It has remained a best seller for over 200 years now and has dramatically impacted popular culture over that time. It has been an inspiration to the film industry with the Oscar award nominee movie starring Keira Knightley.
There is even a Pride & Prejudice mobile game available on iOS and Android. It has left its traces in iGaming too, as there is a slot game titled Pride & Prejudice that can be found on many brands like Bet365, which often offers favourable bonuses as seen in the bet365 casino bonus terms.
So it’s a good job The Pantaloons are so experienced because it is no easy feat taking on a task of this magnitude and translating it into a successful stage production. The group is also well known for their anarchic takes on famous stories and often add a humorous spin to its productions. However, The Pantaloons have moved to ensure all Jane Austin fans have stayed faithful to the source material.
“We are known for being somewhat silly. But with our Pride and Prejudice, we stay respectful to the things that people love about the book in the first place. This production gives Austen fans what they are looking for in a staging – the romance, the scandals – whilst at the same time providing a great introduction to those who are new to the story and also interweaving the elements that make a show intrinsically Pantaloony,” says writer and director Mark Hayward.
The elements that will make it “Pantaloony” will be things like live music, interaction with the audience, and a large dose of comedy, which isn’t actually out of place in Pride & Prejudice. The novel is full of humorous moments, and the group plans to make the absolute most of them. It is also essential to The Pantaloons that their shows are accessible to anyone and everyone and not just massive fans of their plays’ original story.
“We characterise our work as post-modern folk theatre. We take well-loved tales and give them a contemporary twist, making them accessible for new audiences and showing seasoned fans something that they perhaps had not seen in them before,” explained Hayward.
