The Honey Tongued Mr Wickham

“When play stops, old age begins.”

George Wickham

Adrian Lukis has written his own sequel to Pride and Prejudice, 30 years after those events. He is surprisingly still married to Lydia (née Bennet) after Darcy’s intervention to secure a marriage after they eloped. Despite his roué lifestyle, he is still alive at 59 and tomorrow will be his 60th birthday and he is as handsome and charming as ever. We meet in one of London’s most intimate theatres, Jermyn Street Theatre, more like a salon than a public auditorium.

Adrian Lukis played George Wickham in the BBC’s serialisation of Pride and Prejudice the one where Mr Darcy (Colin Firth) stepped out of the lake wearing a wet white shirt and was confused to find an embarrassed Elizabeth Bennet (Jennifer Ehle) viewing his estate at Pemberley with her aunt and uncle. Since Elizabeth had heard George Wickham’s version of his falling out with Darcy first, there was always the sense of a romantic triangle involving the three of them.

Now George Wickham has the opportunity to relate his story, his version of events. He starts with his childhood at Pemberley, the loss of his mother and Fitzwilliam Darcy’s father making George his godson. He recalls an occasion when the two boys were asked to shake hands and Darcy refused saying he wouldn’t shake the hand of the son of a servant. He tells of his terrible experience at a boarding school near Dartmoor and the cruelty from a master there, Dr Hutchins.

The lecherer in Wickham’s character has not left him. He describes the scene outside a playhouse in Covent Garden where he sees the beautiful actress Harriet Wilson, a lady of questionable morals, holding court. Her flirtatious demeanour seems to be directed at him but he turns to see the handsome cloaked figure of Lord Byron is attracting her interest.

He describes his marriage to Lydia and how they make each other laugh, with brash, boorish and vain humour. They have a business where Lydia adorns hats with stylish trimmings. He describes his friendship with Captain Denny and their experience at Waterloo. When he talks about the uniform, it appears in the glass at the rear of the Georgian furnished stage. He describes his two children meeting Darcy and Elizabeth’s two with good humour.

This piece is so beautifully and wittily written I was starting to think George Wickham would have had a future as a writer but then I realised it was written by Adrian Lukis. He is the epitome of handsome, charming and a fine figure (which we were allowed to say in 1813) so we can imagine how readily he won Elizabeth Bennet’s admiration. I thoroughly recommend this show.