'Pride & Prejudice' 2.0

Local troupe attempts Jane Austen's classic love tale, but with a twist

By Dwayne Steward

Metromix

Successfully reprising Jane Austen's "Pride & Prejudice" for the stage is almost as impossible a task as taking on anything by Shakespeare. If you choose to give it a shot, reinvention becomes the name of the game. It's a game that the Available Light Theatre hopes to win when they present their version of the classic Jan. 14-24 in Studio Two of the Vern Riffe Center.

The popular troupe (responsible for 2009 hits "Dirty Math" and "Killadelphia") has teamed up with veteran thespian Daniel Elihu Kramer (CATCO's "The Pillow Man," "Many Moons" by Phoenix Theatre) to bring a "romantic deconstruction" of the famous tale that the company promises is like no other version you've ever seen.

"As the actors are immersed in the story about five sisters in Georgian England, and how their lives are turned upside down by a wealthy young man (Mr. Bingley) and his best friend (Mr. Darcy), the modern world continues around them. And they find themselves occasionally interrupted by it," AVLT executive director Matt Slaybaugh said in an e-mail. "[Kramer] collected real conversations about 'P & P' from around the Web and around the world. The story’s own popularity and cult status affect its performance."

The company often puts a "twist"—as AVLT veteran and "Prejudice" director Eleni Papaleonardos calls it—on their shows, which their audience now expects. The company has made a name for itself with quirky escapes into surrealism that often expose our culture's shortcomings while revealing the beauty of humankind, according to the company's mission statement. "Prejudice" looks to be no different.

"‘Pride & Prejudice' has been done, and it's been done beautifully. We're not in competition with the six-hour BBC series or the Keira Knightley film," Papaleonardos said with a slight giggle. "We're just simultaneously enjoying the beauty of the book and asking interesting and critical questions."

We pulled the delightful Papaleonardos—who spends her days teaching in the English department at Denison University—aside just weeks before the company's opening night to get an inside look at AVLT's ambitious retelling of Austen's epic love story.

Available Light is usually known for taking on controversial, lesser-known works. How did the idea to stage such a well-known classic come about?
It's a bit of a roundabout story. We originally had a musical planned for this slot in our season. We were going to do "Evil Dead: The Musical," but later realized we couldn't becasue our budget wouldn't allow for a big musical. We decided we still wanted to do something that would cater to the regular Available Light audience but also bring in a new group of people that hadn't heard of us, which was our original plan with "Evil Dead." A romantic deconstruction of "Pride & Prejudice" is interesting to our audience—who expect something a little different from us—and interesting to those who wouldn't usually come to our shows and may see it in a paper and want to just come see a staging of Jane Austen's popular play.

What drew you to direct the play?
I'm a big fan of the book. I love the book because it's about two people who come together as equals. It's not one of those typical love stories. They are whole persons within their own right and are a wonderful couple because they're really whole by themselves.

How will the show be different? What does an Available Light remake of "Pride & Prejudice" entail?
Making it different was mostly [Kramer's] doing. He wanted to write a play that was specifically for [Available Light]. Something that was socially conscious and made you think, but also appealed to a wider audience. And we're doing a deconstruction, so that allows us to do something that some of the epic film remakes can't. We can use Jane Austen's beautiful narrative. The play is essentially a narration or description. You can't use those beautiful words in a film adaption. In a play deconstruction, we get access to all of that. If you read Jane Austen with only the dialogue and none of her brilliant prose, it wouldn't be as beautiful.

What exactly is a "romantic deconstruction?"
We're taking a deeper look at the book. There are only five actors that will be taking on all the roles. In addition to all the characters they're going to play, they're being presented as five actors who are also trying to figure out the play—basically trying to understand this book. We'll see moments of the book come to life, but at times one person will break out of character and say something like, "Why do we hate Mrs. Bennet so much?" or "Why does Darcy write that letter?" and they'll discuss the answer. It's like an MTV pop-up video [laughs]. You'll be watching, and all of a sudden you'll be reading an interesting tidbit.

What were some of the difficulties staging Austen's detailed prose?
It's really interesting to take a work of literary fiction and turn it into dramatic text. It's hard [laughs], but really interesting. In literary fiction we get to know the characters very well, but in putting them on stage we have to look at them in a very different way. You have to ask yourself, what do the characters want? When we first started working on the show and looking at Elizabeth Bennet, we realized it almost seems like things are always happening to her. So the question became, how do we make her an active participant in the narrative? It was a really fantastic challenge.

Is there anything else you'd like to add about the show?
Available Light fans won't be disappointed—they will get the Available Light performance [laughs]. But for the people that are new to Available Light—who maybe aren't interested in the deconstruction—they'll also be interested because it's also just a great look at the amazing book.

Jane Austen's "Pride & Prejudice" by Available Light Theatre opens 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 14, in Studio Two of the Vern Riffe Center. Ticket prices are based on the company's popular Pay What You Want system. To purchase tickets or for more information, visit Darcy4ever.com.