An Austen Heirloom for the Holidays

What’s this? A cast of fourteen actors playing twenty characters? A tale of manners and courtship in 19th Century England? Not a new playwright, just an adaptor? What’re the Ross Valley Players thinking, producing Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice?” for 2010 audiences? After eighty-one seasons, shouldn’t they know better?

As it happens, they know a good script. Jon Jory’s 2005 adaptation is a fast-moving, fun presentation of the 1813 Austen classic. Its characters are engaging and their emotions recognizable, but their social environment is almost two centuries away. Here’s etiquette so exquisitely refined that a young man’s request to use his sweetheart’s given name almost suggests an engagement. Here the lack of a governess in a home with children is regarded as scandalous neglect. But even more, the pressure to marry at the appropriate time is a cultural necessity. Without it, women face lives of economic distress, and bachelors face social disapproval. Mrs. Bennet assumes, “A single man of large fortune must be in want of a wife.”

At least, she hopes that’s the case because the Bennet home has five unmarried daughters, all of them “out,” or marriageable, and the inheritance laws of the time will not allow women to be heirs. So if dear Mr. Bennett should pass away before his daughters are wed, his estate would go to his nearest male cousin and lawyer, the detestable clergyman, Mr. Collins, instead of to a son-in-law. Mr. Collins is more than willing to do his duty; he’ll marry the Bennet’s daughter, Elizabeth. But when Lizzie is unwilling, he picks somebody else.

Clearly, Lizzie is too proud. She’s even prejudiced against young Mr. Darcy, who has been watching her at the Assembly Ball, but is said to have “an extremely critical eye.” The two engage in a crisp and prickly dialogue that shows they are made for each other.

Family and social connections are all over the place in “Pride and Prejudice,” but when everyone isn’t minding everyone else’s business, they take time to sit civilly and discuss the events of the day. The play is a period piece brought up to date with artistry and care, a nicely polished old jewel.

Phoebe Moyer directed the Ross Valley production according to the Jory script and added a raked stage with wings, similar to the stages in the 18th Century. The actors themselves or costumed stagehands arrange minimal props without interrupting the plays’s brisk pacing.

Lori Dorfman is a perfect Elizabeth Bennet, balanced and uncompromising. Her impossible mother is played by Pamela Ciochetti, with Alex Ross as the patient, long-suffering father. Caitlin Evenson is Lizzie’s compliant and dreamy younger sister Jane, with Ariel Harrison, Beth Deitchman, and Rachel Watts completing the Bennet family.

Erik Rhea portrays the aloof and high-minded Mr. Darcy, and Michael Cassidy doubles as both Jane’s suitor, Mr. Bingley, and Fitzwilliam, one of the cousins. Aaron Malberg is convincing as the ingratiating Mr. Collins, and British-born Judy Holmes takes a commanding turn as his dowager guardian. (She’s also, if you look closely, the Housekeeper.) Craig Neibaur, Nicole Zeller and Kurt Gundersen round out this large and capable cast.

“Pride and Prejudice” will be performed through December 12 at The Barn Theatre in the Marin Art & Garden Center, Ross. Shows are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m.Sundays, November 28 and December 5 and 12, and 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, December 2 and 9. Tickets are $15-$25. They may be ordered online at www.brownpapertickets.com, by phone, 800-838-3006, from the box office, 456-9555, or purchased at the door.