Justine put a link to her Jane Austen weblog in Polish in a comment. (Beautiful costume photos!) The title of the weblog translates as “In the Light World of Jane Austen.” That is a sentiment we can get behind at AustenBlog.

(Incidentally, we have many talents but speaking Polish is not among them; we used an online translator.)

She also has lots of photos from the P&P3 production, compared with their counterparts in P&P2. We haven’t seen them side by side like that before. It is quite interesting.

EDITED to make title correction.

We direct your attention to the comments of this post, in which Felix gives his approbation of the “Jane Austen” operetta (I don’t know what else to call it) currently touring Australia. We rather hope that this production makes it to the States at some point. Thanks for posting your review, Felix!

Joanne writes from Edinburgh with a delightful review of the stage production of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE currently touring the U.K.

Hello Austenblog

I had the very great pleasure of going to see the infamous stage production of Pride and Prejudice with John Leslie last night and thought you may be interested in the views of a Janeite to go along with all the official reviews.

Having read the various articles that have been posted on your site I didn’t go along expecting a top class production - in fact I was mostly looking forward to being amused more than anything else. I wasn’t disappointed. It was, for the most part, average verging on not very good. As one of the reviews commented, John Leslie was not the worse thing in it. (Actually, I ought to say he was quite good for someone with no acting experience. Very tall though.)

Things which stood out:

• “It is a truth univerally acknowledged…” was used three times. Slight overkill there….
• One actress managed very admirably to play Mary Bennet, Miss Bingley and Lady Catherine.
• I shuddered when Mr Bennet suggested to his lady that if instead of worrying about having 5 unmarried daughters he would be more than happy to try again for a son. Jane would not have approved.
• What was Miss Jane Bennet doing in Derbyshire, pray?
• Every scene change (and there were many) ended with a member of the cast providing some music and some others performing some very odd looking dance moves.
• Lizzy may have noticed Mr Darcy changing from unappealing to appealing but the audience certainly didn’t.
• Mr Collins was perfect and provided more than welcome amusement.
• Mr Bingley and Mr Wickham wearing kilts in the last scene provided some definite bemusement. Was this just for the Edinburgh audience?

I am probably being a little too harsh. As I know the book so well I could spot every amusing line before it was uttered (and indeed joined in with a few myself….) and probably looked askance every time there was a line not straight from the book. I did find the whole thing entertaining and I’m pleased I went but I must confess that I found myself looking at my watch and wishing it was Colin Firth on stage instead.

I will not attempt to describe the views of my poor long suffering boyfriend. Let us hope he enjoys Bride and Prejudice a little more….

To finish, I’d like to say thank you for AustenBlog. It’s great fun and very informative (if it weren’t for you, I probably wouldn’t have gone to see the play!)

We are amply repaid by your great review, Joanne. Thanks for sending it along! (And your boyfriend gets the Mr. Knightley Award for escorting you!)

P.S. KILTS?!?

Radio Sargam reports a promotion for BRIDE AND PREJUDICE by the UK magazine HEAT. If you live in the UK, and want to see a special screening of B&P, grab the latest copy of HEAT and run to your nearest cinema! The promotion is “first come, first served”, so move quickly!