Jane Austen Abounds

Mary Bennet, middle sister in Pride and Prejudice, doesn’t get much love from Jane Austen fans — nor did she from Austen herself, frankly. But Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon affectionately made her the heroine of their delectable fan-fiction romp, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, which Taproot Theatre staged winningly in 2018. Now Gunderson and Melcon have sequelized their sequel, and again Taproot Is providing the platter for the plum pudding: The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, which centers former bad girl Lydia; her odious cad of a husband George (will he get redeemed too?); and, for a change, the downstairs staff. Book-It, meanwhile, is using the author as a diving board for the full-length Austen Unbound, which will choose one suggestion per show on which to improvise their own fantasy on Austenian settings and themes. (Janeites, save the date, too, for Village Theatre’s staging of Kate Hamill’s zany take on Sense and Sensibility, Feb. 1 - March 12 in Issaquah.) - GB https://book-it.org/events/austen-unbound/