Synopsis
Spirited Elizabeth is the second of five Bennett sisters. Their detached, sarcastic father and their giddy, excitable mother failed to produce a male heir so their estate is entailed to their cousin, Mr Collins, a comically pompous clergyman. When the pleasant Bingley arrives in the neighbourhood he seems an ideal match for eldest sister Jane.
Elizabeth clashes with Bingley’s rich, haughty friend, Darcy, partly over unreliable information supplied by a charming and manipulative rogue, Wickham.
Collins proposes to Elizabeth, who turns him down, so he marries her friend, Charlotte Lucas. Visiting Charlotte in her new home, Elizabeth encounters the formidable Lady Catherine, Darcy’s aunt, who believes he is promised to her sickly daughter. Elizabeth learns that Darcy has prevented the match between Bingley and Jane.
On a trip to Derbyshire with her aunt and uncle, Elizabeth finds herself at Pemberley, the Darcy ancestral home and unexpectedly encounters Darcy again.
After a family scandal involving the youngest sister, Lydia, is resolved by Darcy, Elizabeth relents and marries him. And, of course, Jane marries Bingley.
Characters
The Bennet Family
- Mr Bennet – The sardonic, patriarch, amused at the follies of others
- Mrs. Bennet – Anxious mother fixated on marrying off her daughters
- Jane Bennet – Eldest daughter; beautiful, gentle, and optimistic
- Elizabeth Bennet – Second daughter; witty, and independent–minded
- Mary Bennet – Middle daughter; studious, and fond of moralising
- Kitty (Catherine) Bennet – Fourth daughter; easily influenced by Lydia
- Lydia Bennet – Youngest daughter; flirtatious, impulsive, and reckless
Other Characters
- Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy – Wealthy, proud, aloof gentleman
- Mr Charles Bingley – Darcy’s amiable friend who falls for Jane
- Caroline Bingley – Bingley’s status-conscious sister
- Mr Collins – Mr Bennet’s pompous cousin and heir to the Longbourn estate
- Charlotte Lucas – Elizabeth’s pragmatic friend
- Mr and Mrs. Gardiner – Elizabeth’s sensible aunt and uncle from London
- Lady Catherine de Bourgh – Darcy’s wealthy, imperious aunt
- Miss Anne de Bourgh – Lady Catherine’s sickly daughter, intended for Darcy
- Colonel Fitzwilliam – Darcy’s amiable cousin
- George Wickham – Charming officer with a grudge against Darcy
- Mrs Reynolds – Housekeeper at Darcy’s Pemberley estate
- Georgiana Darcy – Darcy’s young sister
Cast size 11-19 with some possibilities for doubling, if required:
- Bennet/Gardiner/Fitzwilliam
- Mrs Bennet/Mrs Reynolds
- Lady Catherine/Mrs Gardiner
- Kitty/Anne/Georgiana
- Lydia/Georgiana/Anne
- Mary/Caroline/Charlotte
- Collins/Wickham
There are other possibilities if we cross-gender roles.
Playing ages can be flexible. For guidance: Lydia Bennet is 15 years old, her sisters are older. Jane, the eldest, would be 21 to 26 or so. Mr and Mrs Bennet, would be of an age to parent the girls, anything from mid-forties to sixties. The Gardiners could be younger. Darcy, Wickham and Bingley can be a bit older than Jane; twenties to thirties. But these are guidelines, at best, and good actors can play a wide range of ages