Actor Samantha Beach
Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley
Last year I moved into an apartment with my younger sister. After some formative years spent apart in other parts of the country, we were both moving to Chicago – at the same time! We posted a picture of us in front of our extra-large UHaul (our parents saw this as an opportune time to stop storing our many boxes of “treasures”). The caption: “Jojo and I live together again, this time by choice!”
That choice has proved to be a profound one, though different from what I imagined. I thought I had decided to move in with my memory of my teenage sister. And while we can be frequently caught “reverting” over dishes and clothes and that annoying sound she still makes … while we still have almost the same exact food preferences and instinctive reach for Gilmore Girls in dark times… the choice I’ve actually been invited into is to see my sister for the woman she has become. She is bold! She is a leader! She knows how to build a desk! She disagrees with me sometimes and wants a more innovative and entrepreneurial career than I thought. Perhaps these things were always true but I was too busy doing everything first to pay attention. Or maybe they are newly developed abilities and passions. Regardless, I am working to allow her to redefine the positive but outdated impression I made of her growing up, when I too was growing up. Some days I am better at this than others.
In Miss Bennet, we meet four sisters in the thick of this struggle. Familiar triggers drop them right into their learned tracks of behaving and relating to one another. And their narrow views of who each other are based on who each other were might keep them from enjoying their Christmas together. But more importantly, these old patterns could prevent the power of true sisterhood when they need it most; helping one another to clarify, celebrate and pursue their deepest joys.
Taking on a much beloved character like Elizabeth Darcy is intimidating, but it is also a gift to have such a strong foundation on which to create. And in this play, we get to see Lizzie in the next season of her life; on the other side of some lessons learned, beginning to build a real relationship after such a complicated courtship. After examining all that we know to be true about her from Pride and Prejudice, it has been fun to investigate the ways in which Lizzie has matured. While her trademark wit and passion remain, in this story I find her more compassionate and more patient (Though she has her moments. No one’s perfect!).
I have tried to approach Lizzie with the same grace and openness that I think the play challenges us to carry into this holiday season with our own families. It’s something that I am working to bring into my apartment where I am getting reacquainted with another beloved character; finding her wonderfully familiar and yet wholly new.
