By SHARON EBERSON
The Bennet sisters and their beaus have some unfinished business to attend to, two years after the events of Pride and Prejudice. So ingloriously did Jane Austen make that cad George Wickham the husband of the impetuous Lydia Bennet – while bestowing love and wealth on siblings Elizabeth and Jane – that perhaps the avid readers might still be feeling a pang about Lydia’s fate.
Not to worry, Austenians. The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon, reveals the fate of George and Lydia in an irresistible, beautifully crafted production by City Theatre.
of “The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, at City Theatre.
(Image: Kristi Jan Hoover)
Kyle Hayden directs the second installment in the trilogy of P&P sequels, as he did last year’s equally engaging first installment, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. The Miss Bennet of that title is wallflower Mary, who meets her match during a Christmas gathering hosted by exuberant Elizabeth and stoic Fitzwilliam Darcy.
The Darcys, played in 2024 by Melessie Clark and Juan Rivera Lebron, are hosting a family gathering on their Pemberley estate. Invited guests are upstairs, while The Wickhams takes place entirely in the downstairs kitchen, giving the Pemberley staff a central spot in a plot that thickens nicely, as emotions run hot.
As the outwardly imperious Mrs. Reynolds, the wise head housekeeper who helped raise both Darcy and Wickham from boyhood, Shammen McCune’s constant scowl masks a soft heart. She is the law downstairs, also the purview of industrious, sweet-natured Brian (Evan Hines) and the apple of his eye, Cassie (Anna Bakun), a vibrant, independent newcomer to Pemberley.
For those who saw last year’s show, there is a clever visual trick that opens The Wickhams, to let people know the action is in the same venue, but a floor below. A further realization, that it is the same night, comes by way of an unwieldy Christmas tree – a humorous scene between Hines and Bakun’s endearing characters.
as Brian in City Theatre’s production of The Wickhams. (Image: Kristi Jan Hoover)
As the title suggests, the Wickhams (Brett Mack and Alex Sheffield) are at the plot’s core, but Gunderson and Melcon have neatly intertwined the upstairs/downstairs storylines, just as City’s production, in association with Carnegie Mellon University, combines a solid combination of experience and up-and-comers.
Among the cast, Clark and Mack dispel any semblance of the sizzling star-crossed leads they played in Quantum Theatre’s A Moon for the Misbegotten this past summer. Here, they share little stage time, as Clark’s happily married Elizabeth is mostly vexed by her demanding family upstairs.
Mack’s Wickham, however, never makes it up the steps, as he arrives uninvited, drunk and tattered, and every bit the overbearing scoundrel Austen put on the page.
For Mack, George Wickham is the means to a splashy return to City after a long absence (Muckle Man and Mezzulah, 1946, in 2006-07). His character takes it on the chin both literally and figuratively, drawing an appreciative cheer or two from the opening-night audience.
(Image: Kristi Jan Hoover)
Sheffield, a recent Carnegie Mellon graduate, is the lone repeat performer from the 2023 Pemberley party. As Lydia, she has the biggest arc in the play, and brings a depth and growth to a character previously derided as “just a silly girl.”
Besides Sheffield and director Hayden, the production’s CMU partnership includes Hines and Bakun, both seniors; Eva Hu (lighting designer), Lindsay Barr (dramaturgy), Carrie Anne Huneycutt-Parker (costume designer); and Lebron, a current acting professor.
The design by Anne Mundell, a CMU professor emerita, includes charming projections of exteriors and interiors that are among the production’s visual highlights.
Building a holiday tradition based on Pride and Prejudice characters, co-written by one of America’s most-produced playwrights, is proving to be a creative boon for City. The company and three regional partners have commissioned Gunderson to adapt another popular 19th-century story about sisters, Little Women, for a coast-to-coast launch over the next two years.
For now, I am content to make my way to the South Side and feel the holiday spirit wash over me, as I settle in for a warm and welcome Christmas at Pemberley.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
City Theatre’s production of The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley runs through December 22, 2024 on City’s Mainstage, 1300 Bingham Street, South Side. Tickets: Visit https://citytheatrecompany.org/play/the-wickhams-christmas-at-pemberley/ or call 412-431-2489 (CITY). City Connects partners: Boys and Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania and the Country Dance and Song Society of Pittsburgh. The company also will collect supplies for Community Human Services throughout the run of the show.
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