Pringles, karaoke and Wagon Wheels: Pride and Prejudice gets a modern, all-female reboot

Jane Austen’s classic is re-imagined as a musical, including disco hits and ’80s ballads, from the perspectives of the novel’s ‘forgotten’ characters.

Minutes into a rehearsal for Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) Mrs Bennet seems, alarmingly, about to headbutt anyone getting too close. Instead, she pulls her disappointing daughter Mary into an embrace and coos soothing words. Poor Mary. The monstrous mother’s manic moods have hardly improved over the past two centuries.

A new musical version of Jane Austen’s classic is electrified by the physicality of a very fast and funny ensemble. As Mrs Bennet, the wiry Zoe Ioannou is a bruiser: part street thug and part dictator. Her muscular strut is sure to become iconic in its own way when the show opens this month.

Austen’s famous novel is such a beloved story of wit and romance that it’s been the subject of endless adaptations, parodies and tributes. Last year, Austen-mania reached new heights during the 250th anniversary of the author’s birth.

Recently, Melbourne hosted yet another take on Pride and Prejudice with theatre company Bloomshed perching the cast on top of a giant wedding cake – a hulking symbol of what once deemed women’s sole destiny. Nadine Garner has presented a solo adaptation; and a 2026 television series, The Other Bennet Sister, follows unmarried Mary as her sisters rattle off in carriages to matrimony.

Naturally, the gender and class relations of a novel written in 1796 in Regency England are ripe for lampooning in 2026. Director Simon Harvey has worked on several previous productions and in the rehearsal’s early scenes, he’s enjoying watching Ioannou dominate the stage and her daughters. Despite Mrs Bennet’s historic reputation as vulgar and embarrassing, he takes a kinder view.

“The challenge with that role is you want her to be mean because that’s what people are expecting, but the drive for her is actually desperation. She’s desperate to keep the house because she hasn’t got sons, and the inheritance law (favouring male heirs) is one of the tricky things for a modern audience. It’s so ridiculous and archaic. I think if she’s driven by desperation, you do kind of buy her behaviour. Although we do enjoy her being mean to Mary!”

Thanks to actor Colin Firth’s alluring wet shirt in the well-known Pride and Prejudice BBC television series, and any number of classy British re-makes, few would not know the storyline – but here’s a quick primer.

The five Bennet sisters live more or less innocently with their nervy mother and distracted father, but a patriarchal threat looms. Due to the er