Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It’s Pride and Prejudice: Pemberley Drift! A motor-raising, horse-racing, carriage-riding cinematic escapade! Think Pride & Prejudice meets Fast and the Furious. There are horses with funny names. Ladies-in-waiting. Villainous schemes. Undercover informants. And plenty of equine madness to set your screens aflame!
And how, you ask, does this fringe production of movie-going madness begin its beguine?
Well, it all starts with Christopher Nolan, it seems.
For the tale of ‘Pride and Prejudice: Pemberley Drift’, is an unfolding saga borne not of English-pedigree, but at a Universal Studios lot in Hollywood. Where four madcap, cinematic -hungry executives are desperately trying to come up with a quick and easy ‘remake movie’ pitch to soon present to leading filmmaker Christopher Nolan, known for his male-centric, Hollywood Blockbusters.
But seeing as they are in a mad rush, their minds and temperaments go a bit haywire. There is infighting, bickering and squabbling. And, we discover, a bit of a boo-boo blunder, when an email is misread by the corporate brand manager in charge of advertising.
For instead of reading ‘P&P’, meaning ‘Pride and Prejudice’, he misreads it as ‘F&F’, for ‘Fast and the Furious’, and chaos ensues. These two movies are polar-opposites to one another! Two completely different genres! All the revved-up car product placement advertising has gone ahead. Million dollar deals are now set-in-stone. With a view to toppling the competition (Paramount Pictures) and make cinematic, money-making history.
What’s a studio to do when time is ticking?
Create a movie franchise mashup, that’s what!
And what better way to do it? Then on the fly!
Dear lord.
And so, we voyage through a side-splitting hour of slapstick stops-and-starts, including a brilliant opening sequence featuring a held-up globe as planet earth, a raised UNIVERSAL sign, and four actors screeching the famous universal orchestral score, with added cadence at the end.
And pretty soon, we are being treated to a night of pure comedy gold: where Jane Austen meets Vin Diesel, and revved -up horses are named Honda, Jeep, Ferrari, Ford and Chevrolet. Where drifting is-the-new-black in an Austen-esque world: with slo-mo cinematic stickhorses, with grit-infused, gravity-defying riding skills.
In between patches of side-splitting Tinseltown shoptalk, we are introduced to a slew of willy-nilly characters.
Catherine Beaumont, the eldest of 15 siblings, is sent by her worried mother to visit her cousin Fitzwilliam Darcy and his wife Elizabeth (Nee Bennett)at their Pemberley estate for the summer, to see if Catherine can win herself a respectable suitor.
But love is hard to come by, for Catherine, much like her cousin Elizabeth before her, is not so easy to win over. That is, until she meets charming, chief-wrangling stablehand (or is he really?) Ambrose at night while visiting the stables. For which she wagers a competitive ride on a horse-stick – though never ridden a horse. He then lets her down off the horse gracefully, and manages to take her along to an illegal horse-racing game, where horses are wagered and money is made. There, we meet Emma Woodhouse, an equestrian Queen. (Or is she really?) Who trains Catherine on how to be a true Equestrian Drifter. Where horse sticks are used as weapons, with slow-motion, matrix-style action moves. Where Emma, we learn, is really an undercover informant, investigating fraudulent money-laundering from certain Pendlebury land owners. We also work out that and Ambrose is really EK, known around town as an ‘Equestrian King’, who may have something to do with a particular criminal activity as well – organised by his delightfully villainous uncle, Mr. Collins, who we learn, is the grand enemy of Darcy.
As I said, this plot moves quickly, and delightfully so.
This show also has four truly talented actors and writers that nail every role.
Noah Sargent, doubling as the executive ad man and Ambrose (aka EK) is larger-than-life with a Farrell-like quality, true to his convictions and moving the story forward from beginning to end with boundless ease.
Lisa Baker, as innocent, quick-witted Catherine, plays her period role to-a-t, moving the plot along with a charming period-like English accent and prim and proper mannerisms that she brings seamlessly to the audience.
Jay Watts plays multiple roles, including those of Elizabeth Bennett and Emma Woodhouse very well. Yet, I found she shone her best when playing a weathered-down, sarcastically-mouthed Hollywood executive having marriage troubles. To which the audience laughed and found equally hilarious.
But Adam Forgione – by far, was my absolute favourite as Mr. Collins, a bond-like villain with a foreign accent we’ve heard repeatedly through that franchise. Every articulation was precise, every mannerism so underhandedly evil in nature, yet his character’s origins? Elusive and unprintable. Just how we like it.
Largely Austen-eque, with a bit of fury thrown in, alls-well-that-ends well for this high-impact, box-office hit. My love for stick-horses has made a dramatic comeback, as has my absolute delight for bond-like megalomaniacs, complete with prize-winning, patrician-like purring.
Ultimately, this show wins a race of its own – to take my heart over completely.
If you’re in the mood for an original, laugh-out-loud, rollercoaster ride of hilarious improv, kitschy period films, horse-hopping stunts and cliched entanglements, then this is a show I’d definitely recommend for audiences this Melbourne fringe season.
To book tickets to Pride and Prejudice: Pemberley Drift, please visit https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/pride-and-prejudice-pemberley-drift.