Whew! Scads, nay, a plethora of Jane news today. We just wanted to post a reminder, in the face of all these film and stage adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, that Jane Austen wrote five other novels, and other stuff besides. Your Gentle Editor recommends Persuasion, and of course Northanger Abbey, but in general you can’t go wrong with Jane. At pain of sounding rather Oprahish, go read something!

Thanks as always to all our visitors and friends who send in information. We are really having a ball with this weblog. And we all long for a ball, don’t we?

Last one out tonight, please turn off the lights. Thanks!

A new show called JANE AUSTEN, presented by the musical group Musica Viva, is touring Australia. The show is a combination of spoken word and music. An article in The Age has more about it.

BRW has an article with some hilarious business-related definitions, including a synopsis of P&P that could have been written by Donald Trump.

Pride and Prejudice. A novel by Jane Austen. It features the Bennets, a well-to-do family living 50 miles outside London. Mrs Bennet frets that if her husband dies and none of her daughters marry, then she will not be able to afford to renew her subscription to BRW and will descend into a deep depression. However, Elizabeth (the heroine) says she will marry the rich and arrogant Mr Darcy (the hero) only when he qualifies for the BRW Young Rich list. Until then, they are just good friends. Elizabeth’s sister, the impetuous and flirtatious Lydia, elopes with a ne’er-do-well army officer, Wickham, who has never bought a copy of BRW in his life. Fortunately, Darcy buys Wickham a year’s subscription, just averting disaster. Darcy has been struck not only by Elizabeth’s physical beauty, but also by her handbag, which has some nasty pointy edges. He proposes marriage but presents it in such condescending fashion that Elizabeth flatly refuses him, insisting that any pre-nuptial agreement fully reflects changes to the capital gains tax regime. Darcy consults his lawyers and everyone ends up deliriously happy, especially the lawyers.

If you’re in the Indianapolis area, the Indiana Repertory Theatre’s current show is PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, through October 9. If you get to see it, we’d love to hear your report.

EDIT: There’s an article about the production, specifically about the actress playing Elizabeth Bennet, in the Indianapolis Star.

Your Gentle Editor is old enough to remember those shampoo ads with Rula Lenska, which were kind of hilarious because nobody on this side of the pond knew who she was. In an interview in the Scotsman, Miss Lenska talks about those ads, and about playing Mrs. Bennet in a stage production of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE that is touring in the U.K., where they DO know who she is.

“It’s not a part I thought I would ever get cast in because Mrs Bennet is usually played as a sort of bird-brained, fluffy little creature. So it’s a lovely challenge to try to bring something completely different to her. Mrs and Mr Bennet are quite often caricatured.”

We were able to confirm some P&P3 filming details in yesterday’s post and also received some new cast information from the U.S. distributor, Focus Features.

Firstly, Keira Knightley’s new short hairstyle is indeed in preparation for her next film role, but she is not yet finished with P&P filming. She will be wearing a hairpiece for filming purposes. (Indeed, we suspect she has been all along.) Filming at Chatsworth will take place later this month as scheduled.

Secondly, there is not yet even a tentative U.S. release date for the film. It is simply scheduled to be released sometime in 2005. We don’t have any information about release dates in other countries (perhaps the September 2005 date is for the U.K.).

Also, we have some new cast information, all provided by the representative of Focus Features, so it is dependable information.

• Tamzin Merchant as Georgiana Darcy. She’s not listed on the IMDB and seems to be a drama school student with mostly stage experience. There’s a photo of her in the college brochure (PDF).
• Kelly Reilly as Caroline Bingley. Kelly appeared in the (fairly) recent television version of REBECCA with Emilia Fox (Georgiana in P&P2) as well as the 1997 version of TOM JONES with Benjamin Whitrow (Mr. Bennet in P&P2) and Sylvester McCoy (Mr. Bennet in the current touring stage production of P&P). Photo at the IMDB. Cinthia sends along this photo of the POLDARK cast; Kelly is the young lady on the left.
• Cornelius Booth as Colonel Fitzwilliam. From a Google search, he seems to have mostly stage experience, and is a graduate of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. We wonder if he is the fellow in a photo on this page? (Scroll down a bit to the bearded fellow. This is all very RenFaire.)
• Peter Wight as Mr. Gardiner. Mr. Wight has quite an extensive filmography, many of which will be familiar to Janeites. He is in the new film VERA DRAKE, which stars Imelda Staunton (Mrs. Palmer in S&S2), and was in the TV version of JANE EYRE with Ciaran Hinds (Captain Wentworth in P2). He was Ormonde in CHARLES II: THE POWER & THE PASSION, also directed by Joe Wright, who is, of course, director of P&P3. The only photo we could find was a headshot from a 1980 production of Julius Caesar. (Scroll down some. Keep scrolling. :-)) If you can find something more recent, please feel free to send it along.

The Focus Features representative also sent along the news that Brenda Blethyn will be in New York next month for a revival of ‘NIGHT MOTHER opposite Edie Falco of THE SOPRANOS, if you would like to check out Mrs. Bennet up close and personal.

EDIT: Cinthia of JAcastellano writes to tell us some more information about the cast members.

Kelly Reilly (the new Caroline Bingley) also appears as Clowance Poldark in the 1997 remake of Poldark, she appears then as the sister of Ioan Gruffudd’s character in that film. Good choice IMHO. She also worked in Maybe Baby as Nimht, the main actress of the film which is being filmed in Maybe Baby, but I cannot remember if she appears in any scene with Macfayden, he is an obnoxious BBC executive
there.

Peter Wight has also appeared as Mr. Wilfer, Bella Wilfer’s kind father in the 1998 miniseries of Our Mutual Friend.

Thanks, Cinthia!

Here you go! The site is in Spanish but you should be able to figure it out–though one that purports to be of “Keira Knightley y Brenda Blethyn” is, I believe, actually of Brenda Blethyn y Jena Malone, at least if these photos at Rex Features are anything to go by.

Thanks to Keira Watch for the links.