Is there anything more shocking and wonderful than a true literally classic done up and decked out for Christmas? I jest not; Jane Austen never had the chance to show us the festive holiday season in her romances, but Lauren Gunderson & Margot Melcon have done exactly that! Miss Bennet Christmas at Pemberley, now playing on the main stage of the Maryland Ensemble Theatre, nestles itself in the cozy bosom of three days before Christmas…two years after the conclusion of Pride & Prejudice. Wherein Mr. & Mrs. Darcy have invited the whole (mostly-formerly) Bennet clan ‘round for Christmas-time celebrations! What could be more delightful and witty than that? Directed by Suzanne Beal, this charming little Christmas tale will light up your heart for the holidays and give all the literary romantics a perfectly pleasing alternative to the Dickensian holiday approach.
The show is nearly a perfect execution in ‘how to host a Jane Austen Christmas party’ save for two minor, albeit noticeable, components. Because there is a great deal of Mary (the spinster-middle Bennet sister) playing the piano, and sometimes these piano-playing moments get used to cover scene-changes and silent non-scenes (where characters are rushing into the drawing room and then out again without speaking), when scene changes occur without these piano-playing instances they are very noticeable and desperately crying out for some more music (maybe even a carol of the times) from Sound Designer Shayden Jamison. The production’s other issue is the meandering English accents. There doesn’t seem to quite be a consistency with whatever approach Dialect Coach Shea-Mikal Green was taking (particularly with the Jane character, though it is worth noting that at this performance Jane was played by the understudy.) Words don’t always glide off the tongue as they’re being caught up in an attempt some sound of upper-class-period-English. If both of these minor blights are the only issue facing the production, it is jovially and joyously ahead of the game.
Scenic Designer David DiFalco has done a tremendous job of crafting the homely and welcoming Pemberley interior. Though we’re only privy to the drawing room, with the piano forte and— gasp— a Spruce Tree. Indoors! How delightful absurd! (It’s a German tradition— look it up!) Where were we? Ah yes, the drawing room and the library, while these are the only two rooms at Pemberley to which the audience is treated, it is beyond clear from DiFalco’s intricate detailing of the wallpaper and wainscotting that the estate could sprawl on for acres and acres. The lovely fireplace, the gold-paint inlay of the piano forte, the subtle holly and ivy garlands indicating the Christmas season, all of these components add up to a resplendent set, which feels as if it came straight out of a production of Pride & Prejudice itself. Lighting Designer Doug Grove uses a lot of lower blue lighting, often times to indicate evening or night, but Grove’s major success are the twinkle-falling snowflakes near the end of the production.
Shimmering snow-white Christmas gown, the one featured on Lizzy complete with matching feathered headband, is just one of many lovely pieces fabricated by costume designers Elizabeth Tringali and Judith Harkins. The dresses are cut and fitted to period; Tringali and Harkins do a lovely job of highlighting Jane’s baby bump in her Christmas frippery. Darcy’s main jacket is even almost the same shade as the powder blue velvet upholstery on the seats in the drawing room. If there’s a questionable sartorial selection among the bunch of otherwise perfect costumes, it’s that holly-dress seen on Mary for the ‘Christmas Day’ ending. The fabric pattern may be period (or periodesque) and the cut fits the actress perfectly, but in the lighting it doesn’t look very appealing, though kudos to the dainty holly-headband that she gets to wear because of said dress.
Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon have masterfully woven a continuation of The Bennet sisters, though all are married off now save for Mary, and she thusly becomes the protagonist of the tale. Gunderson and Melcon’s work feels so natural, one could scarcely believe these weren’t pages discovered in a long-lost writing desk belonging to Jane Austen herself. The characters reflect some growth from their natural conclusions in Pride & Prejudice but not so much as to be unrecognizable; the dialogue and character interactions fit perfectly into the pre-established realm, though with a much-needed dose of glee. But that isn’t to say that all things are perfect at Pemberley for the holidays. In true Austen fashion, love blossoms, burbles, and is immediately and bombastically blasted apart by some accidental secret. It’s truly a remarkable script, fleshing out the characters in a way that hints fully at female agency and the power of women without being didactic or overbearing on the matter.
Director Susanne Beal keeps the play speeding along at a clip. While the scene changes without music (or any sound) feel a bit off, they aren’t enough to keep the play from being thoroughly enjoyable. The production features just eight performers (at this performance the role of Jane Bingley was played by Jennifer Pagano and the role of Bingley was played by Matthew Harris) and they play off one another with excellent energy, living fully in this Jane Austen world whilst embodying the spirit of Christmas, engaging it over the sensible style in which Austen wrote dialogue, and ultimately present a performance that is humorous, heartfelt, and utterly engaging.
Except for the fact that they are the epicenter of all the chaos, the menfolk in the production are outnumbered by the women. You get Darcy (Bill Dennison), naturally, as it’s his and Mrs. Darcy’s home to which we’ve returned for the holidays, Bingley (at this performance Matthew Harris) and newcomer Arthur de Bourgh (Joe Waeyaert), some cousin-relation-or-other to the late Lady Catherine de Bourgh. (And for anyone who knows Pride & Prejudice, there’s a small delighting glee in noting the passing of that character for the sake of this narrative!) There is a scene or two where the menfolk can be found alone in the drawing room— and the first of the two’s very end results in Harris’ Bingley having the most hilarious of nervous-anxious expressions not only on his face but visible all through his posture as he rocks and finger-fidgets through to the end of the scene.
Dennison’s Darcy is rather lighthearted and somewhat of a far-cry from the sullen and moody, anti-love-Darcy from Pride & Prejudice but this fits the bill divinely as the character should certainly be more tender, open, and less sour given he’s happily married to Lizzy. Dennison presents the character without airs but keeps his station in mind when addressing other characters, all while showcasing a somewhat charming and almost nurturing nature to both Mary and Arthur during separate moments of council. Matthew Harris’ Bingley might just be the most humorous character in the production; he’s all subtle giggles and a slight air of blissful ignorance. Harris’ facial expressions are particularly animated and his overall presence on stage is just that energetic sort of bubbly that makes you want to smile right back at him.
As for poor Arthur (Joe Waeyaert), from the moment he arrives on the scene, his nerves jitter about like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Waeyaert manages to look queasy in the face, which radiates through his entire body, every time the overly obnoxious Lydia takes him by the arm and attempts to steer him around the room. In his staged-apart dual of ‘the letters’ (where he’s on one side of the stage lit in solo focus and the Mary character is exactly the same though on the opposite side of the stage) he delivers his lines with such pitiable confusion it’s hilarious. His character flusters quite easily and Waeyaert allows these moments to vibrate all throughout his physicality while trying to remain seemingly still and upright. His meet-cute with Mary is both stimulating and disorienting right from their very first exchange of words.
Drifting into the play like an entitled wraith riding on the noxious clouds of airs and graces, Anne (Courtney McLaughlin) is quite enough to be getting on with. Assuredly channeling the spirit of the character’s late, obstreperous mother, McLaughlin has the audience loathing her before she even gets a full moment on stage. The frosty condescension that drips from her tongue when she has her conversation with Lizzy. Playing quite the polar opposite, though hardly having any direct contact with Anne, is Jane Bingley (at this performance Jennifer Pagano.) Sweet, settled in her becalmed and sagely ways, Pagano makes Jane the mildest of the sisters present (Kitty gets left out of the entire tale…she’s away in London, but coming with Mama and Papa…who arrive on Christmas day at the end of the show, off stage.) Pagano brings a natural glow to the character and moves with a practiced ease of a woman who is very late in her pregnancy.
Lizzy (Molly Parchment) is the sensible one though not without her temper and backbone. While she floats through the house in a generalized state of merriment, she does have her moments. Parchment blushes perfectly on cue when discussing with the sisters just how eager Mr. Darcy is to start family, and she holds her own in the snipe-off with Anne. The most wonderful thing about Parchment’s performance is the natural-born chemistry between her character and Darcy’s; the pair feel as if the honeymoon-romance phase from the very end of Pride & Prejudice is still going strong these two years later and it’s obvious from her body language and the way she addresses Darcy that her Lizzy is still very much smitten and wholeheartedly in love with him.
An obnoxious shrieking twit that makes you want to plug your ears is what you get for most of the story when it comes to Lydia (Rose Hahn.) While the Lydia character is written to be a bit vapid, and overly bubbly to the point of exhaustion from just absorbing her energy when she bounces into a room, Hahn does find that moment that really humanizes her. There is a really striking moment of character shift, which Hahn delivers superbly, when Lydia gives a raw and tragically beautiful confession to Mary about the real state of her affairs. It stands in such sharp contrast to her otherwise excessive joviality and excitement that one can hardly believe both portrayals are coming out of just one performer; she’s that good.
Middle child, single-spinster, torchbearer for the life she never got to lead, Mary (Tori Weaver) winds up being the show’s protagonist. Even though it’s truly an ensemble piece as little bits of everyone’s story are being told, the way that Weaver gives Mary agency and voice and doesn’t back down from those moments where the Mary character could simply be a lovestruck ingenue, makes her the focal point of the story. There’s a fire burning just behind Weaver’s eyes that you see, even when the Mary character is becalmed, it’s the fire of curiosity, passion, and yearning. The most precise with all of Gunderson and Melcon’s verbiage and with the most impressive accent of the bunch (second perhaps only to Harris’ Bingley), Weaver is spellbinding in the role. She experiences one-hundred emotions all at once as Mary and portrays them in equal measure for the audience so that we can feel them along with her, sympathize, empathize, and ultimately relate to her. Weaver is extraordinary in the role and feels like the perfect fit for the character.
There are beautiful moments all throughout the piece; there’s proper drawing room humor and a flare of Jane Austen’s lively literary world— and there’s a spruce tree now living, dressed up, and possibly being spoken to, in the drawing room at Pemberley. It’s a wonderful Christmas pick-me-up that is just in time for the holiday season.
Running Time: 2 hours with one intermission
Miss Bennet Christmas At Pemberley plays through December 23, 2022 on the Main Stage of the Maryland Ensemble Theatre in the Historic FSK Hotel building— 31 W. Patrick street in downtown historic Frederick, MD. For tickets call the box office at (301) 694-4744 or purchase them online.
