By Katherine Misero of Osbourn Park High School
In the classic tales of nonsense love and passion, “Pride and Prejudice” captivates hearts on Robinson Secondary School’s stage.
The eccentric Bennet family, well mainly Mrs. Bennet rushes to secure matches for all four daughters. This excitement continues when two wealthy bachelors join the ball season. However, sister Jane does not feel the same excitement for marriage, believing she will forever remain a spinster.
After an incident where punch is spilled on the famous stoic Mr. Darcy, Lizzy is left feeling that Mr. Darcy is insufferable but enticing. Lizzy, along with her sisters, create scandals and love stories that would be gossiped for ages.
The play was originally a novel by Jane Austen. It has been adapted into many movies and plays, all as iconic as the original story.
As a dog is man’s best friend, Mr. Bingley (Benjamin Fredericks) is Mr. Darcy’s best friend. Fredericks was a ball of energy throughout the entire show, jumping up and down, and running to chase his desires. When Bingley finally reunited with Jane (Erin Oedemann), his love, Fredericks embodied the excitement of a dog finally greeting their owner at the door.
This similarity developed a loving character that dissipated any agitation or tension. Mary (Kira Gilligan) also dissipated tension, but only to create an awkward atmosphere. Gilligan fully embraced being the black sheep of the sisters. The flaunt of freakish movements may have made the other sisters look better, but it also made Mary a source of bizarre entertainment. Gilligan stood pridefully singing in front of the ball attendees, which made the attendees scared, but the audience enjoyed the performance.
Finally, the ensemble had the task of moving sets, serving the families, and dancing in the balls. The group stayed constantly immersed, even through scene changes. In the opening scene, the women of the town battled for the attention of any eligible bachelor. The women were devoted to illustrating the hardships of relationships.
Within the craziness of love, the tech added factors that blended beautiful displays of emotion that mirrored the scenes. This display was seen by hair and makeup (Agustin Anello, Gabrielle Smith-Stutzer, Jamie McCormick) when they added aging makeup to Mr. and Mrs. Bennet. They continued adding the smallest detail by the use of hairstyles; the team ensured they were accurate to the Regency era but added their own twists to add to the symbolism.
One of these symbols was Lydia’s pigtails that indicated her young age, which was later covered with a hat when Lydia eloped to hide away her true youthfulness. They also added red roses to Jane’s hair when she and Bingley confessed their love. The red roses symbolized their passion for one another. Additionally, the prop team (Charlie Hartigan) added flowers with intentional color to reveal the true feelings of the bachelors, because it wasn’t only love that was going around.
Collins only wished for a wife, not caring who it would be, so his bouquet was filled with blue, red, and purple flowers, unveiling his unappealing nature. The team also had to deal with the potential accidents that might occur with liquids being thrown on a costume. To ensure the costumes wouldn’t be ruined, they utilized disappearing ink, and painted glasses red when they were truly filled with water. These quick tricks allowed the actors to embrace the dramatics and not worry about a mess.
As Lizzy famously declared, love is nonsense, and Robinson captured the nonsense of love. Together, they gave life to the classic that left the audience squealing. And they took that squealing love and made it bloom into a wonderful bouquet of passion.
