Pride and Prejudice Essay

Molly Austin

March 4th, 2016

A47635425

Critical Essay: Pride and Prejudice

This Sunday, I went to see the play Pride and Prejudice. I wasn’t positive of what to expect because I had never seen the movie before. I based my expectations off of the play I saw earlier this semester, And Away We Go, but this play was certainly different. Pride and Prejudice in particular was at the Fairchild theatre, which had a much bigger stage than the stage for And Away We Go. There was also a much larger cast. I liked the larger cast and big stage more because it was easier to understand who was who and what was going on. Based on what I’ve learned in class, I was able to appreciate the theme of love and social class in the play Pride and Prejudice based on lighting, costumes and set design.

         On stage, the set design was very strategic. There were large blocks on the stage with pictures on them that established where the characters were and what was going on. When they were supposed to be in a ballroom, the blocks displayed a picture of two hands coming together and a chandelier. The chandelier showed that they were in a formal place, and the people that were there were of higher class. To me, the two hands seemed to represent love. In nearly every scene Elizabeth Bennet (Taylor Blair) and Mr. Darcy (Curran Jacobs) seemed to have sexual tension between them. Her back was to him a lot of the time, and it was obvious that they were trying to avoid each other because they came from different classes, even though they didn’t really want to.

While the stage presence and spacing worked out really well for the feel of the play, I think the lighting could’ve been a little better. I would’ve liked to see more obvious colder colors when Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth were avoiding each other and warmer colors when they essentially “warmed up” to each other. I did notice however, when Elizabeth was alone and thinking it was a deep purple tone. That dark color choice was interesting to me because purple usually identifies with the feeling of passion, which I think is very fit for the emotions she was feeling.