Bedlam, the company creating works of theater that reinvigorate traditional forms, presents the world premiere of Emily Breeze’s “Are the Bennet Girls Ok?,” adapted from “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, staged by Bedlam Artistic Director Eric Tucker (previews begin September 14 at West End Theatre, 263 W. 86th Street).

With “Are the Bennet Girls Ok?”, Bedlam returns to the work of Jane Austen, having garnered immense acclaim for their world premiere production of Kate Hamill’s adaptation of “Sense & Sensibility,” which Tucker also directed. In a Critic’s Pick review, Ben Brantley of “The New York Times” described that production as an “enchantingly athletic take on the perils of Austen-style courtship,” and proclaimed, “No troupe in New York these days rides the storytelling momentum of theater more resourcefully or enthusiastically than Bedlam.” “The Wall Street Journal’s” Terry Teachout raved, “Bedlam can make theatrical magic in an empty room. No theater troupe in America is doing more creative classical revivals.”

Breeze, an unapologetically irreverent adaptor, frees “Pride and Prejudice” from bodiced language and mannerisms. She focuses the narrative on the depth, closeness, silliness, dissonance, pettiness—and fierce protectiveness—of the relationships between the Bennet women. Tucker’s production maintains the look and world of regency England as Breeze brings its text and themes acutely up to date—reexamining romances both idealized or simply accepted as givens through centuries of canonization.

As Breeze began thinking through “Pride and Prejudice,” many interpretations over the years, one question continued to bother her: she found it inexplicable that a woman as intelligent as Elizabeth Bennet would fall for Mr. Darcy, given his overt meanness to her (despite his ultimate claims of reform). To dig into a fate long romanticized that consistently left her perplexed, she decided to turn to Lizzie’s relationships with her sisters and their mother. Finding new understanding through this lens, the play likewise re-centers its women characters in its casting: the script calls for an ensemble of women actors, each portraying a different role, while one actor embodies Darcy, Bingley, Wickham, Mr. Collins, and Mr. Bennet.

Says Breeze, “I love writing adaptations—the idea excites and animates me—but I have been told nobody would know a play of mine was an adaptation unless I revealed what the source text was. To me, the reason to adapt is to solve a question about something that’s been troubling me, especially when its characters feel very real and recognizable and true. For “Pride and Prejudice,” that question was always: why do we, in repeating this story, feel so comfortable consigning this woman we love and relate to, to someone who’s been mean to her for a majority of the story? Why would she say yes to this fate? The only answer I could think of for myself was I would only do that for the sake of my sisters—who are the most important people in my life. Reexamining the narrative with that in mind became the motivation behind this adaptation.”

One key element of Breeze’s delightfully disloyal adapting process: the playwright avoids revisiting the source material before writing a draft. This allows her to respond, rather, to mythical and archetypal understandings of characters and story—particularly for a story as ubiquitous and widely retold as “Pride and Prejudice.” For instance, the character of Mrs. Bennet has become a shorthand for, as she puts it, “hyperbolic, hysterical, crazy mothers”—something she wanted to play with and puncture. “The thing that interested me,” says the playwright, is “what if she is all of those things and is also 100 percent right?”

Refusing to return to the original text also means language becomes unfettered, allowing Breeze to write characters the way people speak in her life, and in her head. Says Tucker of the resulting script, “These characters’ resonance is brought out, and amplified, by Emily’s contemporary language. These are not calcified, mythical beings — they’re people we see ourselves in. In our production, we dress them in period costumes, and they live in a period world, but the language makes you feel how alive they are.”

About Emily Breeze

Emily Breeze is a playwright and screenwriter based on the east coast; her plays include Mother Says She’s Shocked Her Children Are Upset (Part 5), Whore and Wife, No She’s Like a Genius, They Died from Their Wounds, and a collection of short plays produced for Fast & Furious and 7×7 at The Tank. Her debut short film, “Shallow Water”, premiered in 2023 at the Phoenix Film Festival, and was screened at the Ridgefield Independent Film Festival, the Roze Filmdagen, and the Bridgeport Film Festival among others. Awards include the 2020/21 GreenStage Live Arts Artist Award for her play THE HOMEWRECKER (co-written with Marialena DiFabbio), and the 2021 Rising Artist Award for her play HALLMARK. Residencies include Millay Arts, the Writer’s Colony at Dairy Hollow, Long Wharf Theatre Artistic Residency, and the 2022/23 Playwright-in-Residence for The Bechdel Group. She is currently pursuing her MFA in playwriting at Yale University. BA Vassar College.

About Eric Tucker

Wall Street Journal Director of the Year 2014/2021. “America’s Best Classical Theatre Director” WSJ.  Off-Broadway: The Assassination of Julius Caesar; Arcadia; Fall River Fishing; The Winter’s Tale; Hedda Gabler; Persuasion; The Crucible; Uncle Romeo Vanya Juliet; Pygmalion; Peter Pan; Vanity Fair; Bedlam’s Sense and Sensibility (Off-Broadway Alliance Award, Lortel nom, Best Director, Drama League nom, Best Revival, 4 Helen Hayes awards including Best Director and Best Production); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Drama League nom Best Revival, WSJ Best Classical Production 2015); Bedlam’s Saint Joan (NY Times/Time Magazine top 10; Off-Broadway Alliance Best Revival 2014); Bedlam’s Hamlet (NY Times top 10); Tina Packer’s Women of Will; New York Animals (World Premiere by Steven Sater/Burt Bacharach), Twelfth Night and What You Will (NYT Critic’s Picks); The Seagull (WSJ Best Classical Production 2014). Other: Angels in America: Parts 1 & 2 (Bedlam/Boston Nominated for 10 Elliot Norton Awards including Outstanding Production and Outstanding Director) Caesar and Cleopatra (ASC); The Rivals (BRT); The Merry Wives of Windsor (Two River), Disney’s Beauty & The Beast (OSF); Pericles (APT, WSJ Best Classical Production 2017); Copenhagen (Central Square Theatre), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (HVSF), Mate (The Actors’ Gang). Eric resides in New York City where he is Artistic Director of Bedlam.

About Bedlam

Bedlam was founded in 2012 with a commitment to the immediacy of the relationship between the actor and the audience. Bedlam creates works of theatre that reinvigorate traditional forms in a flexible, raw space, collapsing aesthetic distance and bringing its viewers into direct contact with the dangers and delicacies of life. Bedlam’s shows have been noted as Ben Brantley’s “Critics’ Picks” for The New York Times six times, included in The New York Times’ and New York Magazine’s “Top Ten Best Show Lists” five times, and on those of The Wall Street Journal and Time Magazine. The Wall Street Journal also noted Artistic Director Eric Tucker as “Director of the Year” in 2014 and 2021 and called him “America’s Best Classical Director.”  Bedlam has won one Drama Desk award, one Lucille Lortel award, three Irne Awards, two Off-Broadway Alliance Awards, seven Elliot Norton awards, and an Obie Grant. Nominations include two Drama Desk awards, three Off-Broadway Alliance awards, ten Lucille Lortel awards, six Drama League awards, and seventeen Elliot Norton awards. In addition to Bedlam’s seasonal shows, Bedlam also offers a Veterans Outreach Program, educational opportunities, and support for emerging artists through its DO MORE: NEW PLAYS series.