The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s Bonnie Monte adapts Jane Austen’s classic for the stage.
By: Stuart Duncan
Bonnie Monte is a miracle worker. Having plowed her way through much of Shakespeare, plus Chekhov, Pirandello, Maeterlinck and Tennessee Williams, she has turned her inexhaustible energy to Jane Austen and adapted Pride and Prejudice for the stage. Having done that, she has directed it as a world premiere for The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in Madison.
And she has caught the flavor of the deliciously witty romance, its bright comedy to heart-breaking details. She has cast it superbly all 26 roles and choreographed its kaleidoscopic scene shifts, then tied all of these threads into a veritable bouquet for audiences, Jane Austen fans or not.
You probably remember the story, which centers on Elizabeth Bennet, the middle daughter of five to a middle class British family with a garrulous mother eager to see all daughters married off, and a cynical father. Elizabeth grows impatient with her suitor, Darcy, partly for his arrogance with his wealthy station in life and partly because he interferes with a love affair between Elizabeth’s older sister, Jane, and a friend of Darcy’s named Bingley. Before the plot can end happily, Darcy must get rid of his pride and Elizabeth must rid herself of her prejudice.
But novelist Austen also adds two of literature’s best-known minor characters the insufferable Mr. Collins, a churchman without compassion, and Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the highest form of social snob. Director Monte has cast these roles superbly, as well as the other two dozen, large and small. A Shakespeare Theatre favorite, Victoria Mack plays Elizabeth exquisitely. We have seen her as Rosalind in As You Like It, Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men, and most memorably as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion. But this tops them all, a treasure trove of sighs, looks and pithy vocal parries. She is teamed excitingly with Marcus Dean Fuller, making his debut in Madison a hugely winning one.
Monte has done the same sort of casting with Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. Edmond Genest, now in his 11th season with the company, is teamed with Monique Fowler, in her first. And the matching works beautifully. Two newcomers play Bingley and Jane, Sean Mahan and Nisi Sturgis (her first name is a compromise between the two disparate names her parents had chosen for her). And both should return many times in future seasons.
But for the two minor roles mentioned earlier, Monte has called on veterans: Michael Stewart Allen, in his ninth season, plays Mr. Collins as if someone has filled his posterior with buckshot. And Elizabeth Shepherd, in her third season at the theater, has great fun taking the character of everybody on stage apart with considerable relish.
The evening is admittedly long some three and a half hours. But you can blame Jane Austen for most of that. The BBC took a full six hours for the television presentation. You won’t be bored.
Pride and Prejudice continues at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre, 36 Madison Ave., Madison, through Nov. 19. Performances: Tues. 7:30 p.m.; Wed.-Fri. 8 p.m.; Sat. 2, 8 p.m.; Sun. 2, 7 p.m. Tickets cost $36-$50. For information, call (973) 408-5600. On the Web: www.shakespearenj.org

