As a companion piece to Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley now returning to the Main Street Theater stage has its share of humor but also sounds more somber notes as it focuses on Lydia, the sister in the depressingly awful marriage.
The first installment — whose writers Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon used Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as its starting point — was played out upstairs and focused on the “forgotten” sister Mary to a happy conclusion.
This time the main action moves downstairs where Lydia’s husband, the notorious Mr. Wickham has shown up against all the wishes of Mr. Darcy and the servants are working hard to keep him hidden from the upstairs guests.
Skylar Sinclair, (just seen at the Alley Theatre in Lend Me a Soprano) adept at playing somewhat scatterbrained characters, is playing Lydia for the fourth time (she played Elizabeth in one Miss Bennet production) and says she likes the “silly” sister a lot. “She’s a lot of fun. She’s real naughty and she’s kind of free of inhibitions and I kind of like that about her.”
And although she tries to keep it hidden from her sisters, Lydia knows she’s not in a very good marriage. “She’s not living the life she always dreamed she would. But she doesn’t want anyone to know that her life is kind of disappointing right now. She puts on a lot of airs, a façade. That’s fun to play; it’s challenging,” Sinclair says.
The costumes they wear come from the Regency Period and Sinclair says she has no problem with them. “The corsets aren’t too constraining and the skirts aren’t too heavy and bulky. It’s a lot more breezy and simple. I just feel kind of elegant.”
Asked why people return year after year to see the Christmas at Pemberley shows, Sinclair says: “Everyone loves the story of Pride and Prejudice. You want to keep coming back and checking in on them to see how they’re doing.”
Performances are scheduled for November 19 through December 18 at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays at Main Street Theater – Rice Village, 2540 Times Boulevard. For more information, call 713-524-6706 or visit mainstreettheater.org. $39-$59.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2022.
