Review Highlights
'This sophisticated and stylish production contains subtle shifts and nuance changes; from laugh out loud humour and satire to moments of genuine human frailty and awareness...Jane Austen aficionados and thespians in general will embrace this sophisticated and clever script. Maybe they should start screen printing the T-shirts now.
Sydney Arts Guide, Newcastle Theatre Company production 2014
Mr Bennet's Bride
'Newcastle writer Emma Wood’s comedy about a young man forced to find a bride swiftly is a delight in this premiere production'
Newcastle Herald 2014, Newcastle Theatre Company production 2014
'It is not every theatre company that is prepared to produce a new work by a relatively unknown playwright but Newcastle Theatre Company must be very pleased that they did so because Mr. Bennet’s Bride played to full houses for the entire season.'
Jane Austen Society Australia Newsletter, Newcastle Theatre Company production 2014
'The script is witty, charming and quite delightful whilst at the same time being loyal to the Jane Austen style. Particular praise must be given to Emma Wood for her clever and sophisticated script of which I’m sure even highly devoted Austenians would approve.'
Ashley Hayward, Elementary Whatson, Priory Theatre production 2022
'An ingenious look at Jane’s Austen’s characters. This very clever play is a prequel to Pride and Prejudice and this production captured perfectly the manners and tradition of the era...This reviewer could envisage some of these characters or their offspring 50 years thence in Pride and Prejudice.'
Charles Essex, Warwickshire World, Priory Theatre production 2022
'You must see this one-of-a-kind telling of what came before the marvellous Miss Bennet and her Mr Darcy. Austen knew what she was doing when she created her characters with their petty personal dramas and Wood’s work is an honourable and true descendant of this great literary creation.'
It is amazing to recognise the brilliance of Emma Wood in absorbing and then matching the brilliance of Jane Austen. I can imagine an e-talking book beginning with Mr Bennet’s Bride and naturally continuing with no apparent break with Pride and Prejudice. For another 200 years.'
Canberra Critics Circle, Canberra Repertory Production 2023
'Austen is a hard act to follow (or to precede) but Emma Wood’s version of the Bennets’ wooing has an emotional and verbal accuracy about it that is highly convincing and very enjoyable.'
Alanna Maclean, Canberra Critics Circle, Canberra Repertory Production 2023
'Mr. Benner’s Bride is that rarest of treats -- a story of characters we thought we knew delivered alongside characters that are new to us, yet surprisingly recognizable... It is a delightfully Austentatious – that is to say rapturously elegant – experience.'
Brad Rudy, Atlanta Theatre Buzz, Pumphouse Players production 2024
Synopsis
An original period comedy, based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, exploring how the ill-matched Mr and Mrs Bennet met and married twenty five years before the novel’s opening. Pressure mounts on the young Mr Bennet to find a suitable match, but his refusal to play by the rules sets in motion a series of events that are both comic and moving.
4M/6F with 6-10 actors