A love letter to Jane Austen with added pop soundtrack - on the Chichester stage

Megan Louise Wilson points out that Pride & Prejudice* (*Sort Of), which plays Chichester Festival Theatre from February 21-25 and then Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre from April 4-8, is essentially a love letter to Jane Austen. The production has then added the soundtrack – a string of pop classics including Young Hearts Run Free, Will You Love Me Tomorrow and You’re So Vain.

“Jane Austen herself has written such a funny book in a way and she's got such an understanding what is funny and how we interact in society. Isobel (McArthur who created the show) has just modernised the whole thing and given it a new life in a way that just really communicates well on stage. It is all the same stuff and if you love the book, you will know it and know what's happening and recognise it, but I just like to think that it has all been heightened.

“I picked up the book when I was a student at drama school but I've got lots of sisters so I grew up in a great big chaotic household and I just think it's such a great book. You've got to have a bit of a romantic spirit which I certainly have, but what is so amazing is the way the show just builds up the tension in the way that the book does. You're laughing a lot and it's very silly and it's very fast but at the same time it really is building up this tension that we can all relate to and as it all happens, we get some great gasps from the audience just as you would in the book.

“I'm totally new to the show. I joined just before Christmas and we're touring now until June.”

It's not just Megan’s longest tour to date; it is actually her only tour to date: “I think I'm still getting used to it. I definitely overpacked for the first week so I did a bit of a repack! It’s just great being together and being on tour together.”

Cast includes Leah Jamieson (Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) at the Criterion Theatre), Lucy Gray (Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) at the Criterion Theatre), Emmy Stonelake (Double Drop for Dirty Protest Theatre, As You Like It for Shakespeare in the Squares and Much Ado About Nothing at the Mercury Theatre), Megan Louise Wilson (The Mousetrap at the St Martin’s Theatre, Doctor Who: Time Fracture for Immersive Everywhere and Pool No Water at The Royal Court), Dannie Harris (Love Letters at the Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch, The New Musketeers at the Trinity Center), Laura Soper (The Storm Whale at the Marlowe Theatre, The Wind in the Willows at the New Vic and Hetty Feather at York Theatre Royal).

The production’s writer and co-director, Isobel McArthur has just won the Evening Standard Emerging Talent Award, having also won the Olivier Award for Entertainment and Comedy Show earlier in 2022. It is unprecedented for a young female writer to jointly win these two.