Wagon Wheel’s ‘Pride And Prejudice’ Is ‘Not Your Grandma’s’
July 28, 2021 at 3:59 p.m.
Wagon Wheel’s ‘Pride And Prejudice’ Is ‘Not Your Grandma’s’
By David [email protected]
Playwright Kate Hamill adapted the 1813 novel for the stage, and her adaptation was first performed on stage in November 2017.
“So the story is pretty much what you would know from the book or the movie if you’ve seen that. But it is incredibly fast-paced and witty; and there’s this really cool doubling of characters where there’s actors playing multiple characters, sort of gender-bending certain parts, which lends to a lot of humor and insight into those characters, which is really cool,” said Wagon Wheel actor Haley Holcomb in an interview Monday. She plays Elizabeth Bennet in the play.
“Not your grandma’s ‘Pride and Prejudice!’” stated Nick Case, who plays Mr. Darcy. “And there’s also – not to give too much away – but it will be appealing to those who read and enjoyed the novel, those who have seen the mini-series, those who have watched the movie.”
“And those who really like the music in the ’80s,” Holcomb said coyly. “You’ll see. You’ll have to come to find out more.”
In describing her character Elizabeth, Holcomb said, “Jane Austen originally wrote ‘Pride and Prejudice’ as almost a satire on the very traditional romance books of the time. So, I play Elizabeth Bennet, or ‘Lizzie,’ and she is one of four daughters, which means that our family’s inheritance will be going to a cousin after our father dies and we basically have to be married off to rich suitors of good status to not lose our own economic, social status.”
Case said, “The matchmaking is a process, especially because there’s a ball all the time, people mingle and the process is a lot expediated than it is now because there’s a courtship, and there’s sort of a getting to know each other, but in Regency Era England, you dance with a woman you find attractive, and then you go for a walk or two, and then you arrange marriage with her family.”
“It’s really interesting learning about all the different characters’ opinions on love and marriage throughout the show, because it really is this economic thing rather than marrying for love,” Holcomb said.
Along with “Pride and Prejudice,” Austen wrote “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1814). Her books remain very popular and are often adapted for stage and screen.
“I think she has just a special insight into human nature and being able to examine these wild topics of the individual versus the collective, or thinking about your personal happiness versus your security and how that affects your life decisions, through these really cool characters who all come into the story with such opinions and such convictions and are – at least on Lizzie’s behalf – very confident in saying that. She is sharp-tongued and she says things that the decorum at the time usually dictates that you hold back and not say out loud in a conversation,” Holcomb said.
“And it’s so interesting to see how each character changes and shapes the other characters throughout the story to where – her convictions she has at the beginning are practically the opposite of how she behaves by the end of the play, which is such a fascinating journey and change to see how Darcy has affected her that way and how she has changed him.”
Case said at the beginning of the story, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy “practically hate each other.”
He said they were talking about the hate-love relationship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy the other day with the play’s directors, Andy Robinson and Ben Dicke. “It seems like such a trope now in musicals especially that people who end up with each other at the end basically spend the entire musical not telling each other that they love each other, and fighting those feelings, taking it out on each other,” Case said. “But, when Jane Austen wrote ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ this was basically the first time this had ever been done. So this is the root of the trope that we know, so if you’ve never seen ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ it will seem obvious from the beginning that, yes, of course, Elizabeth and Darcy are meant to be together. But when the book was written, there was absolutely no idea. It was unpredictable.”
Holcomb said the way that Austen went about writing the humor into the book and really examined people’s motives and opinions, “It was really radical for that time.”
Case said since this show explores love, matrimony and perfection, “there’s a lot of emotional journeys to be had.” In musicals, the music informs a lot of how a character is feeling. “But when you don’t have music, the music has to come from within, which is emotionally draining, but also incredibly rewarding.”
Holcomb agreed, saying, “I love the play.”
As for the show’s theme, she said all the characters have really strong opinions on what they think love is. “I think that theme carries so strongly through every single character arc in the show. And, of course, with the time period, there’s also these themes of what your duty is versus what your happiness would be and how you balance those two things as a character, for yourself, for your family,” she said.
Case said a lot of the characters explore what they have control over.
“There’s a narrative that there is someone who is very passive in how they approach love and matrimony, and there’s a lot of characters who are very assertive and are insistent on matchmaking, which is very interesting about that. But also the idea about imperfection, especially Elizabeth and Darcy have such different on what imperfection is and living with imperfection and what that means in relationships and how you hold yourself in and around other people,” he said.
Both actors have appeared on the Wagon Wheel stage in previous years.
Case is a Midwest boy, hailing from Toledo, Ohio. This is his third summer at the Wagon Wheel, having performed in “Seussical,” “Saturday Night Fever,” “My Fair Lady,” “All Shook Up,” “Peter and the Starcatcher” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
He went to Penn State for musical theater, spending the last year living at home, teaching at his old high school. After his contract with the Wagon Wheel is completed, he plans to move back to New York.
A Southern girl, Holcomb is from Tallahassee, Fla. She went to school at University of Cincinnati College – Conservatory of Music (CCM), Ohio, graduating this year. She grew up as a dancer, getting into musical theater in high school.
This is Holcomb’s second season at the Wagon Wheel, having appeared in the first five productions in 2019 – “Matilda,” “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Oklahoma!,” “Mama Mia” and “Peter and the Starcatcher.” In most of those productions, she was part of the ensemble.
“So this is like the first big part here, which is kind of exciting,” Holcomb said.
For tickets or more information, visit the Wagon Wheel website at www.wagonwheelcenter.org.
Playwright Kate Hamill adapted the 1813 novel for the stage, and her adaptation was first performed on stage in November 2017.
“So the story is pretty much what you would know from the book or the movie if you’ve seen that. But it is incredibly fast-paced and witty; and there’s this really cool doubling of characters where there’s actors playing multiple characters, sort of gender-bending certain parts, which lends to a lot of humor and insight into those characters, which is really cool,” said Wagon Wheel actor Haley Holcomb in an interview Monday. She plays Elizabeth Bennet in the play.
“Not your grandma’s ‘Pride and Prejudice!’” stated Nick Case, who plays Mr. Darcy. “And there’s also – not to give too much away – but it will be appealing to those who read and enjoyed the novel, those who have seen the mini-series, those who have watched the movie.”
“And those who really like the music in the ’80s,” Holcomb said coyly. “You’ll see. You’ll have to come to find out more.”
In describing her character Elizabeth, Holcomb said, “Jane Austen originally wrote ‘Pride and Prejudice’ as almost a satire on the very traditional romance books of the time. So, I play Elizabeth Bennet, or ‘Lizzie,’ and she is one of four daughters, which means that our family’s inheritance will be going to a cousin after our father dies and we basically have to be married off to rich suitors of good status to not lose our own economic, social status.”
Case said, “The matchmaking is a process, especially because there’s a ball all the time, people mingle and the process is a lot expediated than it is now because there’s a courtship, and there’s sort of a getting to know each other, but in Regency Era England, you dance with a woman you find attractive, and then you go for a walk or two, and then you arrange marriage with her family.”
“It’s really interesting learning about all the different characters’ opinions on love and marriage throughout the show, because it really is this economic thing rather than marrying for love,” Holcomb said.
Along with “Pride and Prejudice,” Austen wrote “Sense and Sensibility” (1811), “Mansfield Park” (1814) and “Emma” (1814). Her books remain very popular and are often adapted for stage and screen.
“I think she has just a special insight into human nature and being able to examine these wild topics of the individual versus the collective, or thinking about your personal happiness versus your security and how that affects your life decisions, through these really cool characters who all come into the story with such opinions and such convictions and are – at least on Lizzie’s behalf – very confident in saying that. She is sharp-tongued and she says things that the decorum at the time usually dictates that you hold back and not say out loud in a conversation,” Holcomb said.
“And it’s so interesting to see how each character changes and shapes the other characters throughout the story to where – her convictions she has at the beginning are practically the opposite of how she behaves by the end of the play, which is such a fascinating journey and change to see how Darcy has affected her that way and how she has changed him.”
Case said at the beginning of the story, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy “practically hate each other.”
He said they were talking about the hate-love relationship between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy the other day with the play’s directors, Andy Robinson and Ben Dicke. “It seems like such a trope now in musicals especially that people who end up with each other at the end basically spend the entire musical not telling each other that they love each other, and fighting those feelings, taking it out on each other,” Case said. “But, when Jane Austen wrote ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ this was basically the first time this had ever been done. So this is the root of the trope that we know, so if you’ve never seen ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ it will seem obvious from the beginning that, yes, of course, Elizabeth and Darcy are meant to be together. But when the book was written, there was absolutely no idea. It was unpredictable.”
Holcomb said the way that Austen went about writing the humor into the book and really examined people’s motives and opinions, “It was really radical for that time.”
Case said since this show explores love, matrimony and perfection, “there’s a lot of emotional journeys to be had.” In musicals, the music informs a lot of how a character is feeling. “But when you don’t have music, the music has to come from within, which is emotionally draining, but also incredibly rewarding.”
Holcomb agreed, saying, “I love the play.”
As for the show’s theme, she said all the characters have really strong opinions on what they think love is. “I think that theme carries so strongly through every single character arc in the show. And, of course, with the time period, there’s also these themes of what your duty is versus what your happiness would be and how you balance those two things as a character, for yourself, for your family,” she said.
Case said a lot of the characters explore what they have control over.
“There’s a narrative that there is someone who is very passive in how they approach love and matrimony, and there’s a lot of characters who are very assertive and are insistent on matchmaking, which is very interesting about that. But also the idea about imperfection, especially Elizabeth and Darcy have such different on what imperfection is and living with imperfection and what that means in relationships and how you hold yourself in and around other people,” he said.
Both actors have appeared on the Wagon Wheel stage in previous years.
Case is a Midwest boy, hailing from Toledo, Ohio. This is his third summer at the Wagon Wheel, having performed in “Seussical,” “Saturday Night Fever,” “My Fair Lady,” “All Shook Up,” “Peter and the Starcatcher” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
He went to Penn State for musical theater, spending the last year living at home, teaching at his old high school. After his contract with the Wagon Wheel is completed, he plans to move back to New York.
A Southern girl, Holcomb is from Tallahassee, Fla. She went to school at University of Cincinnati College – Conservatory of Music (CCM), Ohio, graduating this year. She grew up as a dancer, getting into musical theater in high school.
This is Holcomb’s second season at the Wagon Wheel, having appeared in the first five productions in 2019 – “Matilda,” “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Oklahoma!,” “Mama Mia” and “Peter and the Starcatcher.” In most of those productions, she was part of the ensemble.
“So this is like the first big part here, which is kind of exciting,” Holcomb said.
For tickets or more information, visit the Wagon Wheel website at www.wagonwheelcenter.org.
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