The
Christmas at Pemberley play series by Lauren Gunderson and Margo Melcon has become a new #TCTheater holiday* tradition. The playwrights have taken the characters and relationships from Jane Austen's
Pride and Prejudice and continued them on into the following years. These plays came to us first through the Jungle Theater, which produced
Miss Bennet (focusing on bookish sister Mary) in 2017 to such success that they co-commissioned a sequel,
The Wickhams (about Lydia after her elopement with Mr. Wickham), premiering in 2018. After a pandemic pause, they brought us the third play (another co-commissioned rolling world premiere)
Georgiana and Kitty (focusing on the friendship between Mr. Darcy's sister and a forgotten Bennet sister) just last year. Also last year, Lyric Arts wisely jumped on this bandwagon,
producing the first play in the series, Miss Bennet. This year they're continuing the story with the second play,
The Wickhams, the events of which happen concurrently with those of
Miss Bennet. One can only hope they'll complete the trilogy next year with
Georgiana and Kitty, but for now, head up to charming downtown Anoka for the best Jane Austen fan fic, that "
perfectly marries Jane Austen's legacy of female-centered stories in a man's world of property, marriage, and inheritance with modern feminist sensibilities."
You can visit Pemberley-in-Anoka Thursdays through Sundays until December 22.
