PRIDE & PREJUDICE
Welcome to Guildford Shakespeare Company's production of Pride & Prejudice.
We have simply adored bringing this effervescent novel to the stage, and have been completely bowled over by the response it received last year. When so much work, talent and dedication go into making a piece of theatre it is incredibly rewarding when all that commitment and love receives another life, to be shared with even more people. To have all three original cast members return for this production is incredibly exciting. Audiences completely fell in love with April, Sarah and Luke, who make this whirlwind of a show a joy to behold... we're sure you will too. It’s also very special to know that we’re playing a small role in the 250th global celebrations of one of the greatest novelists in the English language.
We hope you have a fabulous time in the company of Jane Austen's wonderful creations.
Matt Pinches GSC Co-Founder
Read on for Company info, biographies and synopsis
FOR PRIDE & PREJUDICE
Adaptor & Director Abigail Pickard Price
Set & Costume Designer Neil Irish
Associate Designer/Costume Supervisor Anett Black
Lighting Designer Mark Dymock
Sound Designer Matt Eaton
Movement Director. Amy Lawrence
Vocal Coach Sterre Maier
Company Stage &
Production Manager Hannah Walker
Deputy Stage Manager El Waldock
The script has been adapted by Abigail Pickard Price with co-adapters Sarah Gobran and Matt Pinches. Grateful thanks to Hayden Wood and Rosalind Lailey for their contributions to the development of the original script.
FOR GUILDFORD SHAKESPEARE
Producers/Co-Founders Matt Pinches & Sarah Gobran
Education Manager Rob Cann
Creative Learning Producer Kerrie Driscoll
Office Manager/PA Saff Waller
Learning & Development Coordinator/
Front of House Manager Eli Murton
Digital Marketing &
Communications Coordinator Briony Tanner
Box Office Team Heather & Cedric Gobran
Thank you to Bowerwood Production Services
for building the set.
THE COMPANY
LUKE BARTON
Mr Bennet,
Mr Darcy,
Mr Wickham,
Mr Collins,
Mrs Reynolds,
Lady Catherine de Burgh
SARAH GOBRAN
Mrs Bennet,
Jane Bennet,
Charlotte Lucas,
Mr & Mrs Gardiner,
Caroline Bingley
APRIL HUGHES
Lizzy Bennet,
Mr Bingley
LUKE BARTON
Luke trained at the Oxford School of Drama. Recent Theatre includes: Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense (Salisbury Playhouse/Bolton Octagon); The Valley of Fear, Frankenstein and The Sign of Four (Blackeyed Theatre, UK Tours); The Hound of the Baskervilles (The Lost Estate); One Man, Two Guvnors (New Wolsey, Ipswich and Nuffield, Southampton); Busman’s Honeymoon, The Unexpected Guest and Spider’s Web (Mill at Sonning); Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Henry V (Merely Theatre, UK Tours); That Is All You Need to Know (Idle Motion, UK Tour); Misterman (Liverpool
Everyman and Playhouse); After Three Sisters (Living Record Productions/ Brockley Jack). Television includes: Doctors (BBC).
SARAH GOBRAN
Trained: Guildford School of Acting For GSC: Sarah is a co-founder and joint producer of GSC. To date, she has played The Wife of Bath, Jacques, Beatrice, Olivia, Adriana, Hermione, Katherina, Regan, Gwendolyn, Mistresses Page and Ford, Maria, Titania, Nerissa, Lady Capulet and the Princess of France as well as a fine line in woodland and farmyard animals including a fox, a shrew and a sheep. Sarah set up the Education Department and plays a key role in the creation and development of the outreach projects that GSC produce. Other theatre includes: Peter Pan (Proteus Theatre); Sugar Daddies (Stephen Joseph Theatre/Yvonne Arnaud Theatre); Far From the Madding Crowd (The Phoenix Theatre); Gulliver's Travels (Sutton Theatres); Desires of Frankenstein (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre); Just William (Charles Cryer Theatre).
APRIL HUGHES
Training: East 15 Acting School. For GSC: Juliet in Romeo & Juliet. April spent two years playing Moaning Myrtle in the hit West End show Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Prior to this April played the leading role of Sandra in the Olivier Award winning The Play That Goes Wrong at the Duchess Theatre in the West End. She recently returned to the show as part of the No.1 UK tour. Other recent roles include: playing the lead in Lipstick at Southwark Playhouse and Measured at the Hope Theatre. She won the Stage Acting award at Edinburgh Fringe in 2014 for her acclaimed performance in Freak which she also performed at Theatre 503; Freefall - a one woman play in partnership with Suffolk young carers. Girls Like That for Synergy (Unicorn Theatre); the site-specific Dracula for Open Book Theatre and the New Playwright project for Soho Theatre. Television includes: The lead role of Mimi in three series of Dixi for BBC which won the children's BAFTA.
ARTISTIC TEAM
Abigail Pickard Price – Adaptor & Director
Abigail is a freelance director and Associate Director of The Watermill Theatre. Her recent credits include: As Director: Macbeth, Our Man in Havana, Just So, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Prince and the Pauper, Burke and Hare (The Watermill); Burke and Hare (New Wolsey, Jermyn Street Theatre, transfer from The Watermill, nominated Best Director, Off West End Awards); Sophia (film theatre hybrid); Pen Pals (audio drama for Rural Arts); Macbeth (Big Brum); Bee Happy (The Old Red Lion Theatre); The Tinderbox (Charing Cross Theatre); Baby (The Hope Theatre); Anna Weiss (The Space nominated Best Director, Off West End Awards); Shrew (International Tour). As well as numerous productions for drama schools including Rose Bruford, GSA, Mountview and Drama Studio. As Associate/ Resident/ Assistant Director: A Voyage Round My Father, God of Carnage, The Nightingales (Theatre Royal Bath and on Tour); The Argument (Theatre Royal Bath); Titanic (International Tour); Twelfth Night (Wiltons Music Hall); Violet, Harold and Maude, The Woman in White, Ragtime, Death Takes a Holiday and Titanic (Charing Cross Theatre); Crazy For You (UK Tour); Twelfth Night/ Romeo and Juliet (performing in rep) (The Watermill & International Tour); Crazy For You, The Adventures of Pinocchio (The Watermill).
Amy Lawrence – Movement Director & Associate Director
Amy is thrilled to be back with Guildford Shakespeare Company again for the return of Pride & Prejudice. Credits include: Aladdin (Norwich Theatre Royal); Jack and the Beanstalk (Chipping Norton Theatre); Twelfth Night (Stafford Gatehouse); Beauty and the Beast, Snow White (The Roses Theatre); The Little Mermaid, Our House, A Man of No Importance (Mountview); Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Latitude Festival); In PerSUEt (The Other Palace); Pinocchio (Chichester Festival Theatre); Uncle Vanya (Old Red Lion); A Doll’s House (Greenwich Theatre); Her Not Him (Theatre 503); The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus (Finborough Theatre); Lysistrata (UK Tour); The Tempest (The Cockpit); Blood Wedding (UK Tour). Amy teaches dance and actor movement at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Mountview and Trinity Laban. Amy studied Musical Theatre at CPA Studios, received a PG Cert in Collaborative Theatre Making in association with Frantic Assembly, and holds an MA in Movement: Directing and Teaching from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, where she was also the recipient of the Litz Pisk Scholarship Award. www.amylawrencechoreography.com
Neil Irish – Set and Costume Designer
Trained: Birmingham and later, at The Slade School of Art UCL. For GSC: Neil has designed over 25 productions since 2009. Recent theatre: The Hound of the Baskervilles (Yvonne Arnaud); The Tempest (Jermyn Street Theatre); Rock n Roll Panto (New Wolsey,Ipswich); Alby Saves the Planet (Reading Rep); Amadigi, The Golden Cockerel, La Bohème (English Touring Opera UK Tour); Something In The Air (Jermyn Street Theatre); One Man Two Guvnors (Tour); Treasure Island, Hansel & Gretel, Peter Pan, Betrayal, Alice in Wonderland, A Christmas Carol (Derby Theatre); Dishoom (Rifco Theatre Co/WatfordPalace); Carmen (Royal Academy of Music); Cosi Fan Tutti (Guildhall Opera); Carmen (New Zealand Opera); Dr Jekylland Mr Hyde, Switzerland (English Theatre, Frankfurt); English Touring Opera Spring Tour; Dr Miracle, Carmen (Royal Academy of Music); House & Garden, Peter Pan, Alice (Watermill Theatre); Don Giovanni, Barber of Seville, Madam Butterfly, Ill Trittico (Opera Holland Park); Tommy (UK Tour); (Derby Theatre); Le Centerentola (Danish National Opera/Opera Holland Park); A Tale of Two Cities (Hong Kong/ Edinburgh Fringe Festival); Look Back In Anger (60th Anniversary UK tour); The Shape of Things (Atak Theatre, Istanbul); Boy With A Suitcase (Arcola); Agamemnon, Prometheus, Frogs (Cambridge Arts); Woyzeck (Gate Theatre/St Annes Theatre, New York); Rodelinda, Amadigi (Dublin/BAM New York); Jekyll and Hyde (Hong Kong/London). Neil has worked for both Set and Costume departments for BBC TV.
Anett Black – Associate Designer & Costume Supervisor
For GSC: Anett has been working as an Associate Designer & Costume Supervisor with GSC since 2014, on over 25 productions. Other Design credits include: The Lonely Londoner (Klin): Twelfth Night, Treasure Island, She Stoops to Conquer (Orange Tree Theatre); Pandora's Box (London Youth Opera); interactive Christmas show at Polesden Lacey (National Trust);The Tempest, Love All, Something In The Air, Beau Brummell (Jermyn Street Theatre); Cassandra (Ukranian Institute); The Picture of Dorian Gray (Trafalgar Studios); Pippin, 9-5, Hair, The Fix, Blood Wedding, Our Country’s Good, The Rimers of Eldritch, First Lady Suite (Bellairs Theatre GSA); Jekyll and Hyde, Pygmalion, The Picture of Dorian Gray (European Arts - Italian Tour); Trails of Oscar Wilde (Theatre Royal Windsor); A Christmas Carol (European Arts); The
Bacchae, Antigone - Spruce wood (Actors of Dionysus); Lysistrata; For ever young, The Price, Deep Water (W11); Don’t Dribble on the Dragon (PTC); MIL-STD -1815 (Alan Turing for Goldsmiths College); The Promise (Elizabeth Hall London); Bittergirls (Kings Head), Jane Austen and friends (Celia Andrews); Yours Unfaithfully (Mint Theater, New York).
Mark Dymock – Lighting Designer
For GSC: Jekyll & Hyde; Hamlet; Tales From Hans Christian Andersen; Macbeth; All’s Well That Ends Well; The Merry Wives of Windsor; Measure for Measure; Alice in Wonderland (2018); Love's Labour's Lost; King Arthur; Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Theatre credits include: Once the Musical (First National Tour); Tony! Tony Blair the Rock Opera (Park Theatre - Harry Hill and Stephen Brown); Clybourne Park (Regional premiere tour); Return to the Forbidden Planet (25th Anniversary Tour); Betty Blue Eyes (Regional premiere tour); Peter Pan (Derby Arena), Love Letters, Kiss Me Quickstep, Haunting Julia, Rope (Queen’s Theatre); One Man Two Guvnors (New Wolsey and Nuffield Theatres); Grandma Saves the Day (New Wolsey); The Wisdom Club (Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds); Jack and the Beanstalk (Derby Arena); Once (Regional premiere- New Wolsey and Queen’s); Ken (Terry Johnson, Pleasance); Revenants (Pleasance, Kenwright); Dell Computers Gala (Buenos Aires); Cathy (Soho Theatre); East (Brighton Theatre Royal and Festival); Northanger Abbey (Bury St Edmunds Theatre Royal Tour); Cathy (Cardboard Citizens tour); Michael Morpurgo's Butterfly Lion (Kenwright, National Tour); Numerous shows at Mercury Theatre; House and Garden and numerous shows at the Watermill Theatre; Don’t Look Now (OFFIE nominated for Best Lighting Design at Queens Theatre); Walking the Chains (Bristol Temple Meads Passenger Shed); The Full Monty, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Oliver! (Bermuda City Hall), working with Willy Russell on Educating Rita (25th anniversary), Breezeblock Park (Liverpool Playhouse) and Shirley Valentine (Royal Court Liverpool); Farm Boy, The Hired Man, Kissing Sid James (New York E59).
Matt Eaton – Sound Designer
For GSC: Matt has been working with us for over 10 years. His many credits include: The Housetrap, Romeo & Juliet, Pride & Prejudice, Jekyll & Hyde, The Tempest, Hamlet, All's Well That Ends Well (Off West End Award for Best Sound Winner 2020), Alice in Wonderland, Romeo & Juliet, Grimms’ Fairy Tales, King Lear, Henry V, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Richard III, Othello. Theatre credits include: Pictures of DorianGray (Jermyn Street Theatre, Off West End Award for Sound Finalist 2020); Artist in Residence at the University of South Florida 2020, Furious Folly (a 14-18 NOW commission); Everything I See I Swallow (Edinburgh Fringe First Winner 2019); The History Boys (Sell-a-Door UK Tour); Brave New World (Westgate Shopping Centre, Oxford), Ben Hur (Hexagon, Reading); The Pit and the Pendulum (Omnibus, Clapham), Not the End of the World (EFF); Break the Floorboards (Watford Palace Theatre), Wuthering Heights (YAT). Composer: A Page of Madness (Flatpack Film Festival 2019), Faust (Flatpack Film Festival 2017); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (GSC); The Picture of Dorian Gray (Trafalgar Studios); Shadow Shows (Edinburgh International Film Festival); Nosferatu (WAC). Film & TV: The Gambler (BBC Radio 3); Volkswagen, BT advertisements; Hallam Foe (Channel 4 Films). Eleven Reflections on September (Winner - Best Experimental Feature at the Silk Road Film Awards, Cannes). Sound Art: Kethra (Venetian Biennale of Architecture), Faith and Fracture (sound art installation in York Minster), Everything Must Go (artist and sound designer, Friction Arts), For-Wards (artist and composer, Birmingham), 12 Tones (Eastside Projects, Birmingham). Games: Pool Panic (Nintendo, Audio Design).
Hannah Walker – Company Stage & Production Manager
Trained: East 15 Acting School. For GSC: Hannah started full time with GSC in June 2022, beginning with A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other GSC credits include: The Housetrap, Romeo and Juliet, Boeing Boeing Gone, Henry V, The Canterbury Tales, Hamlet, She Stoops To Conquer and Tales from Hans Christian Andersen. Other credits include: Shelia’s Island (UK Tour); The Snow Queen, Hound of the Baskervilles, Maggie and Ted (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre); Arabian Nights, Trap, The Laramie Project, The Gift of the Magi, Arthur: A Boy to a King, Selfish Giant, Much Ado About Nothing, Anne of Green Gables, You Can’t Take it With You, The Den and Swan Warf (The Mill Studio, Guildford).
El Waldock – Deputy Stage Manager
Training: Guildford School of Acting. For GSC: The Canterbury Tales, Henry V (DSM), Richard II, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (ASM). Other credits include: Robin Hood (DSM - Yvonne Arnaud Theatre), The 39 Steps (ASM Book Cover - West End), The 39 Steps UK Tour (ASM Book Cover), Cinderella-(DSM - Yvonne Arnaud Theatre). El is overjoyed to be back with GSC for Pride & Prejudice’s return!
SYNOPSIS
In the Hertfordshire countryside, lives the respectable Bennet family. Mr and Mrs Bennet have five daughters, Jane, Elizabeth (Lizzie), Lydia, Kitty and Mary. News soon arrives of the arrival of a new tenant of the nearby Netherfield estate. Mr Bingley, who is a wealthy, single young gentleman, is accompanied by his fashionable sister, Miss Bingley, and his close friend Mr Darcy.
At the assemblies in Meryton, Jane catches the eye of Mr Bingley, who has been thoroughly well-received in the community. His friend Mr Darcy, however, freely demonstrates a proud distaste for the rural community and his slighting of Lizzie as a possible dancing partner is overheard by her. Whilst on a visit to Netherfield, Jane catches a cold and has to remain as the Bingley’s guest until she is well. Lizzie, concerned for her sister, visits the house and experiences more of Mr Darcy’s condescension and haughty opinions. Lizzie meets this with a calm and clear wit, which ironically begins to attract him closer to her, much to the frustration of Miss Bingley.
Meanwhile, Lydia and Kitty are obsessed with the gossip and excitement of the arrival of the militia in Meryton. With the regiment comes a Mr Wickam, with whom Lizzie strikes up a close friendship. From him she learns of Mr Darcy’s ill-treatment of him as a boy, giving her another reason to dislike him.
In addition, Mr Bennet’s cousin, the sycophantic Mr Collins, who stands to inherit the Bennet’s estate upon the death of their father, unexpectedly arrives. His plan is to marry one of the sisters. With Jane hopefully engaged to Mr Bingley, he switches his affections to Lizzie. She firmly refuses him and after a swift recovery, Mr Collins marries Charlotte Lucas, a close friend of Lizzie.
It is greatly anticipated that Mr Bingley will soon propose to Jane, but things are thrown into chaos when it is discovered the Mr Bingley, Mr Darcy and their party have all suddenly quit Netherfield, unlikely to return anytime soon.
In the spring, Lizzie visits Charlotte Lucas and Mr Collins at his parish in Kent. The parish has been bestowed upon him by Mr Darcy’s aunt, the formidable Lady Catherine de Burgh, who owns the magnificent Rosings Park. During a visit to Rosings, Lizzie encounters Mr Darcy again, and his cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam. From the Colonel she learns that it was indeed Darcy who separated Jane and Mr Bingley.
One afternoon Mr Darcy calls on Lizzie at the parsonage and proposes to her. Given everything she has been told about him, she refuses him outright. Her reasons being his involvement in her sister’s sadness, his proud demeanour, and his treatment of Mr Wickham.
Mr Darcy writes to Lizzie the following day explaining his reasons for separating her sister from his friend, but also justifies his actions with Mr Wickham. Lizzie is ashamed of her rashness to believe the stories of Mr Wickham, and just as she is about to leave, news comes that Lydia and Mr Wickham have eloped to get married. She hurries back home to learn that her father and uncle have gone to London to seek the pair out, but to no avail.
** STOP READING NOW IF DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!! **
Eventually, the pair are found and Mr Wickham has been given a position in a Northern regiment, his debts paid and a dowry bestowed on Lydia. It turns out that it is Mr Darcy who has engineered all this at his own expense.
Mr Bingley returns to Netherfield and asks for Jane’s hand in marriage... but will Lizzie and Mr Darcy find their happy ending?