About the work
Stolz und Vorurteil* (*oder so) is the German version of Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of), a comedy with songs written by the Scottish author Isobel McArthur after Jane Austen's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice. The play premiered on 28 June 2018 at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow in a production by the company Blood of the Young, directed by Paul Brotherston, with McArthur herself in the cast. The German translation is by Silke Pfeiffer.
Plot
The female servants of a Regency country house narrate and act out the story of the Bennet family, whose five daughters, lacking a male heir, fear losing their home and are therefore expected to marry as advantageously as possible. At its centre are the quick-witted Elizabeth Bennet and the wealthy, standoffish Mr Darcy, whose mutual dislike gradually turns into affection. Five performers share all the roles, from the servants to the gentry, and at decisive moments of the plot they sing well-known pop songs karaoke-style.
Cultural significance
After touring the UK, the production moved to the Criterion Theatre in London's West End in autumn 2021 and won the 2022 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment or Comedy Play; in the same year McArthur received the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Emerging Talent. The source novel is among the most widely read books in English literature and came second in a major BBC readers' poll in 2003.