Review of a raucous new take on the Jane Austen classic

Shit-Faced Shakespeare has long desecrated/improved the Bard’s classics by having one of their cast act drunk… and now it’s Jane Austen’s turn to have a literary masterpiece converted into a raucous night out.

Putting the mannered niceties of Regency England very much to one side, Plied and Prejudice turns the husband-hunting antics of the Bennet sisters into a ribald party experience, tailor-made for an attention-deficient, Instagram-posting audience and vibrantly executed.

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in Regency England must be in want of a very stiff drink,’ the introduction goes – inviting the audience to imbibe freely. 

There are QR codes to summon drinks to your seat as the performance goes on, the bar is one big photo op and filming is positively encouraged. If you get irritated by fellow punters watching shows through their phones, this is not the show for you. In fact, if you are any sort of purist, maybe one of the more sedate screen adaptations will be more your pace.

Speaking of pace, that’s one thing this production has by the bonnet-ful. The cast rattle through the novel in just 90 minutes – a quarter of the time it took the BBC – and having just five actors play a cast of 20, adds to the frenzied speed. 

They career up and down the stage with a manic, irrepressible energy, donning and discarding costumes in frenzy. Tim Walker has to zip between playing all three of the less interesting Bennet siblings AND Mr Darcy; Monique Sallé has to switch nimbly between the sweet-natured Jane Bennet and the haughty Caroline Bingley; and Andrew Macmillan has almost too many characters to count. Meanwhile, Brigitte Freeme and Emma Andreatta are, among other roles, commanding as the feisty Elizabeth and pushy Mrs Bennet respectively, who between them generally take charge of keeping the plot galloping forward.

In a tunnel beneath London's Waterloo station, the stage is long and thin, like a fashion catwalk – or perhaps a 100m track – with the audience just two or three deep, close to the action. Swathes of the text and superfluous characters are axed – so it might help if you’re familiar with the original to keep track.

 Topical references are inserted and the formality of the pivotal ball scene become a hip-hop dance-off as the crowd whoop and holler. And, yes, Mr Darcy does get his wet-shirt moment, as made into an iconic TV moment by Colin Firth 30 years ago. 

It has the boisterous atmosphere of a pantomime – even down to the audience being ordered to holler abuse every time the oleaginous Mr Collins’s name is mentioned. The script is witty and knowing in the service of keeping proceedings zestful. Even if the actual jokes are relatively predictable and sometimes cheesy, that aim of an unflaggingly dynamic   performance is easily achieved.

Originating in Australia – where else? – Plied and Prejudice is clearly targeted at a party-going crowd who might otherwise be unlikely to head to a West End play. Plenty of people dress up for the night, and it’s easy to see its flamboyance proving a girls-and-gays big-night-out hit, especially. 

• Plied and Prejudice plays at the Vaults, Waterloo, until July 18

Review date: 24 Mar 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett