THE Castle Players’ winter production currently touring in Teesdale is a highly amusing foray into Jane Austen’s comedy about snobbery and marital lottery.

Director Laurence Sach’s adaptation is faithful to the complex plot, with passages of time and alterations of place voiced by a narrator in between brief sketches enacted amid a few moveable gilded chairs serving as props.

Mime, recorded music and the sound of birdsong embellish scenes, along with 18th century ballroom dancing, while constant movement by characters on and off stage is not unlike a period gavotte.

The action homes in on humour from the start with Andy Moorhouse’s sardonic delivery of lines as Mr Benne and there’s a very funny cameo from Andrew Stainthorpe as Mr Collins.

But the outstanding comic performances come from Trudi Dixon as Mrs Bennet, trotting out histrionics and hyperbole, silliness and greed, and Charlotte Perkins as Lady Catherine de Bourgh, gliding about the stage with glacial hauteur, ferocious upper class accent and an elegant plumed hat.

Wearing a ubiquitous top hat, the already tall Sam Straker gains extra height to convey Mr Darcy’s lofty demeanour.

Elizabeth Bennet’s teasing personality and her inner conflict are underplayed, but there is no mistaking Phoebe Shaw’s light-bulb moment over the letter revealing Mr Darcy’s true character, nor her spellbound look at the vision of Pemberley and all it promises.

The other Bennet girls are neatly sketched, with Ella Blackburn particularly engaging as girlishly silly Lydia. Chris Best is a good storytelling Narrator and gives a cosy performance as Mrs Reynolds. Adele Tyler’s cutting snobbery as Caroline Bingley and Dawn Trevor’s clear-sighted Charlotte Lucas are also well played.

The pace was initially slow but picked up as the players got into their stride. Plaudits go to all the 18-strong cast, some doubling in other roles, especially for speaking their lines so clearly.

Pru Farrier