Your high school English teacher did not prepare you for this. From April 9 to 12, the Pomona College Department of Theatre ran its production of “Pride and Prejudice” — but this version of the story definitely isn’t one you’ve seen before.
This play put a modern twist on Jane Austen’s classic novel, maintaining certain key elements of the story while heightening the tension — and the fun — to keep the Seaver Theatre audience on the edge of their seats.
“Pride and Prejudice,” written by playwright Kate Hamill and directed by Margaret Starbuck, is a stage adaptation of the 1813 novel of the same name. It tells the story of Lizzy Bennet — played by MaKiyah Turner-Hicks PO ’29 — a bold, independent young woman who navigates Regency-era marriage systems and finds herself falling for the stern Mr. Darcy, played by Nicholas Russell PO ’26.
It’s a difficult task to adapt such a famous novel into a play. Madison Prowda SC ’28, one of the show’s assistant stage managers, commented on the intricacies of adapting such a well-known play.
“I think with adaptations you have to change stuff, and you have to modernize it, so I really like that [playwright] Kate Hamill kept the key components of Lizzy and Darcy’s personalities and the buildup of the initial dislike and how that becomes a relationship later,” Prowda said. “I think the key characteristics of the characters were saved but also emphasized for the comedic aspect of it.”
Producing a stage production of a slower-paced novel like “Pride and Prejudice” presents a distinct set of challenges. To translate the novel’s tone and charm onto the big stage, productions must make deliberate changes to make the story as engaging to watch as it is to read.
“Honestly, I think if you put the book onstage as it was, it would be very, very boring,” Prowda said. “Because there’s a lot of waiting, and a lot of ‘I wrote this letter to one person who wrote it to another person, and then they got back to me.’ But that’s not really fun [to watch], so in the play it’s ‘I heard it from the source directly; I ran into this person, and that’s when this happened.’”
The show emphasized the comedic elements of Austen’s masterpiece, keeping the essential storyline while cutting unnecessary parts to make the plot more digestible to a modern audience.
For many audience members, one of the most memorable aspects of the show was the elaborate costumes, which deviated from the historically faithful clothing described in the book.
“I love ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ and I think my favorite part of the adaptation was the costuming,” James Rietz PO ’28 said. “I liked that they were a combination of the Regency era and modern. I thought that part was really well done.”
Unlike the clothing depicted in the original book, the costumes were colorful and fun, using different textures and fabrics to create a compelling visual landscape. Assistant costume designer Molly Grace PO ’28 reflected on the costume design process.
“A lot of what the director wanted was [the] silhouettes of the costumes to be time period specific, but [wanted the] materials and the way they’re constructed to be more modern,” Grace said.
While watching the show, it was clear that everyone involved had a great deal of love for all of the work that went into creating the final production. Grace, who attended a performing arts high school and had acted prior to college, decided to broaden her horizons in Pomona’s theater department by joining the costume design team, leading hair and makeup design. Alongside the costumes, hair and makeup played a big role in the show’s legitimacy.
“I had complete control and design over hair and makeup, so I was decently involved with the costumes but super involved with hair and makeup, which has been really incredible and fun,” Grace said. “So much of costume design is how the actor moves in the space and what they imagine the character to be like. And when those two things come together well, it’s just so exciting to see.”
The team’s passion shone through as the show was tightly produced, with swift scene transitions, cohesive set designs and a consistent tone throughout the whole production. Whether you’ve never heard Jane Austen’s name in your life or whether you’ve committed the novel to memory, Pomona’s production of “Pride and Prejudice” was definitely a hit.
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