Eric Tucker To Direct ARE THE BENNET GIRLS OK? Based on PRIDE AND PREJUDICE At West End Theatre This Fall
.png)
Emily Breeze’s Are the Bennet Girls Ok? adapted from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is coming to New York’s West End Theatre this fall. It will be staged by Eric Tucker, the artistic director of Bedlam.
Tucker garnered immense acclaim for their world premier production of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Sense & Sensibility. Breeze’s adaptation highlights the narrative depth of the story — the closeness, silliness, dissonance, and fierce protectiveness of the relationships between the Bennet women.
Bedlam is a New York City-based theatre company founded in 2012 focused on creating work that reinvigorates traditional forms in a flexible, raw space. Its goal is to close the distance between actors and audiences.
As Breeze began thinking through Pride and Prejudice’s many interpretations over the years, one question continued to bother her: she found it inexplicable that a woman as intelligent as Elizabeth Bennet would fall for Mr. Darcy, given his overt meanness to her (despite his ultimate claims of reform). To dig into a fate long romanticized that consistently left her perplexed, she decided to turn to Lizzie’s relationships with her sisters and their mother. Finding new understanding through this lens, the play likewise re-centers its women characters in its casting: the script calls for an ensemble of women actors, each portraying a different role, while one actor embodies Darcy, Bingley, Wickham, Mr. Collins, and Mr. Bennet.
“To me, the reason to adapt is to solve a question about something that’s been troubling me …” Breeze said in a statement. “For Pride and Prejudice, that question was always: why do we, in repeating this story, feel so comfortable consigning this woman we love and relate to, to someone who’s been mean to her for a majority of the story? … The only answer I could think of for myself was I would only do that for the sake of my sisters—who are the most important people in my life. Reexamining the narrative with that in mind became the motivation behind this adaptation.”
Are the Bennet Girls Ok? begins performances on Sept. 14, with official opening on Oct. 5, at the West End Theatre on 263 W. 86th Street in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here.
