Playwright Kate Hamill Shares How Pride & Prejudice Can Still Be Relevant Today

09 Jul 2025 | General News

Pride & Prejudice has been adapted brilliantly by Kate Hamill, starring a stellar cast who will bring the iconic story to life at Hull Truck Theatre this Autumn, (Thursday 18 September – Saturday 11 October 2025).

Hamill said: “I just love the novels and have read them many times. Jane Austen is very, very funny, obviously. She’s really interested in how the dictates of our conscience clash with what society expects of us. She was very much a protofeminist”

This must-see production, directed by the Octagon Theatre’s Artistic Director, Lotte Wakeham is a new stage adaptation bringing to life the classic story of love, misunderstandings, and second chances (with plenty of music and dancing).

“I really wanted to adapt her books in the order that she wrote them – I’ve just finished Emma – so Pride and Prejudice was my second. I wanted to trace her journey and make each of the plays very different. I also wanted to present them in a totally new way. I like really irreverent, theatrical shows that treat something as a new play and are in conversation with the original, not just a copy-and-paste version.”

“I want to create something that’s new and surprising even for people who do know the novel. I read the original to see what it brings out in me, the thematic questions, and then I wrote it very much as a new play in conversation with the original, cutting out anything that dramaturgically didn’t work with that new play.”

Over time audiences might have seen many different versions of the story, down to Pride and Prejudice with zombies, and all sorts of loose adaptations like Bridget Jones’s Diary, but Hamill promises that this adaptation will be interesting to both people who know the novel and people who don’t know it at all.

“Even now, and certainly in Jane Austen’s day, we treat love like a mix between a game and a war – down to tactics and strategies. I got very interested in the game theory – there are even [dating] books with titles like The Game and The Rules. So, I wanted a play structure that’s very high stakes, and halfway between a game and a war, and I thought, that’s a farce.”

One of the most profound aspects of live theatre lies in its authenticity. Every performance is a unique event, shaped by the energy and interaction between performers and audience. Unlike films, which are meticulously edited and perfected, a live performance is a space where real-time connection and transformation can occur. As Hamill observed…

“I think quite often I write from a place of great love, or great anger, and sometimes both. I love the theatre, I think it’s a transformative place, one of the few public spaces left that are sort of public squares, where you can have this live catharsis and you’re not just staring at a screen.”

With sharp humour and sparkling dialogue, this witty stage adaptation uncovers the absurdities and thrills of finding your perfect (or imperfect) match in life, which audiences will be able to relate with and enjoy. Hamill feels that Austen has been pigeon-holed as fusty, romantic, girly literature, but as this production presents, she is funny and socially smart. 

“I think it’s quite sexist when she’s just as brilliant as Dickens, or Hawthorne, or Thackeray or any of those men who are sometimes maybe taken a bit more seriously.”

Promising a vibrant retelling of Austen’s beloved novel, this production will certainly inspire other female writers. It is fascinating to look back on how Austen was able to write so brilliantly at a time when it was all longhand and between social calls. Hamill said: “It’s so hard to write even now sometimes - and I have computers, and I live in a world where women can take ownership of their own work and get paid some money for it.”

So how does Hamill motivate herself in today’s modern world?

“I infamously went out with my friend, and we split a couple of bottles of wine, and I wrote her a $100 dollar cheque and said, if I don’t have a first draft to you in six months, you can cash this. At the time I was very poor, so that would have meant not making my rent. So, I always highly recommend to writers: write a cheque and give it to a friend you know will cash it!”

The full cast includes: Aamira Challenger as Jane Bennet; Hollyoaks’ Jessica Ellis as Lydia Bennet / Lady Catherine de Bourgh; Ben Fensome as Mr Wickham / Mr Collins; Joanna Holden as Mrs Bennet; Dyfrig Morris as Mr Bennet; Eve Pereira as Mary Bennet / Mr Bingley; Kiara Nicole as Charlotte Lucas / Caroline Bingley. All other roles will be played by members of the company. Completing the cast is Emily Kathryn as the Off-Stage Swing.

Tickets for Pride & Prejudice are available now and can be purchased online at www.hulltruck.co.uk or by calling the Box Office on 01482 323638.  Recommended age guidance: 12+. A number of access performances are also available.