Update November 16: Due to popular demand Main Street Theater has extended performance through December 23.
She’s mentioned in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with little attention paid to her. But now, in Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberley at Main Street Theater, the younger sister of Mr. Darcy gets her due. As does the Bennet sister Kitty.
It’s the third and final installment in the Christmas at Pemberley series delving farther into the immortal characters Austen created. Lindsay Ehrhardt who so memorably played Anne de Bourghi n the first segment Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, (the second was The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley), returns now as a completely different woman, Georgiana the retiring best friend of the far more outgoing Kitty.
Playwrights Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon have set their three plays in the same Darcy household on the same Christmas Day. Although this one moves into the day after, Boxing Day and in the second act we fast-forward six years.
Describing her character in the third play, Ehrhardt says: “She’s pretty shy not necessarily because she’s afraid of people or doesn’t have a lot of self confidence, but she’s a little bit more reserved partially I think due to growing up in the shadow of Fitzwilliam Darcy. He’s this incredible, intimidating character. So I imagine growing up as his younger sister was a little bit like living in the shadow of a giant.”
While Georgiana has a lot of her own opinions, she hasn’t been offered many opportunities to express them, especially given the 1815 culture and mores.
Georgiana’s and Kitty’s friendship has been interesting to explore, Ehrhardt says because Kitty is “very vivacious. She has this kind of magnetic personality that draws people to her. Which is a contrast to Georgianna. “So it’s been fun to explore what brought these two together and makes their friendship work.”
In Pride and Prejudice it’s mentioned that Georgiana is a very good piano player. “So they’ve kind of taken that plot point and run with it.” Georgiana has taken up a correspondence with a gentleman she met at a piano concert for slightly less than a year and she has invited him to Pemberley to spend Christmas with the rest of the family.
“And then all of the kind of shenanigans that unfold after his arrival.”
In terms of staging, this play returns the actors to the upstairs as it was in Miss Bennet (The Wickhams played out downstairs in the servants’ quarters).
Asked why these plays have been so successful (Main Street has extended their runs in the past and tickets are going fast for this one), Ehrhardt says: “I think for several reasons. We have the benefit of it being an intellectual property that is very beloved. I think the playwrights have done the audiences a lot of favors by taking out some of the legwork that comes with being an audience member in that they’re telling stories that audience members are already familiar with. That they already have a relationship with.”
Also, as she puts it, the characters are by and large sweet and charming. Yes there are high stakes along the way, but things are going to work out. “Especially around the holidays, people are hungry for a happy ending.”
Cast members include some familiar faces from the past Pemberley plays as well as new. real life married couple Spencer Plachy and Laura Kaldis are back once again as Mr. and Mrs. Darcy, roles they have played in all three Pemberley plays. Others returning are Alexandra Szeto-Joe as Bennet sister Lydia — she also played Cassie in The Wickhams. Yemi Otulana is back as sister Jane. Chaney Moore returns as Mary Bennet. The rest of the cast includes Clara Marsh (The Last Wife, The Coast of Utopia), Ian Lewis (Peace in Our Time), and Patrick Fretwell.
Robin Robinson is back as director; she has filled that role in the two previous Pemberley plays as well.
Ehrhardt says the costumes are incredible. Many have come from stock but others have been custom made by costume designer Donna Schmidt. Ehrhardt wears four different dresses during the two-act, costumes built especially for her. “All of them are stunning.” And unlike her character in the first Pemberley where everything she wore was black, this time around she’s in different colors.
The men, in their waist coats, tails and high boots are turned out as well, she adds
“As far as I know this should be the end of the trilogy. I think this will put a nice end [on it.] They can’t go much longer on the same Christmas Day; there’s only 24 hours in this Christmas. We’ve met all five of the Bennet sisters by this point. It does a nice job of tying everything up.”
Performances are scheduled for November 18 through December 23 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays with a Wednesday 7:30 performance on November 22 and a Monday night performance at 7:30 p.m. on December 18 at Main Street Theater – Rice Village, 2540 Times Boulevard. For more information, call 713-524-6706 or visit mainstreettheater.com. $39-$59.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
