Modern take on Pride and Prejudice tackles love amidst the housing crisis

Award-winning theatrical satirists Bloomshed (Animal Farm, Paradise Lost) are bringing their uproarious retelling of Pride and Prejudice to Malthouse’s Merlyn Theatre from 14-23 May.

This strictly limited run follows an acclaimed 2025 tour season that garnered nine Green Room Award nominations including Outstanding Ensemble and Outstanding Production.

A side-splitting collision of Regency etiquette and modern-day anxieties, Bloomshed’s Pride and Prejudice asks how ‘happily ever after’ holds up against a crumbling climate and a cooked rental market.

As period dramas trend and dreams of homeownership plummet, this biting satire ponders the function of ‘capital-L Love’ in the twenty-first century.

Shared Bloomshed’s James Jackson:

Playing with Austen’s original, we wanted to see what happens when we retold this story against the backdrop of the housing crisis.

Our process of adaptation is about staying true to the spirit of the original work, while creating something new; boiling a text down to its allegorical form so that it can be read in a new light. We unashamedly blend high art with cheap thrills: dance breaks, heightened humour and sharp physicality to connect Austen’s ideas to the now. What emerges is an incisive commentary on wealth, accumulation and the desperate scramble to get ahead.

Malthouse Theatre Executive Producer and co-CEO Vivia Hickman:

From the moment I saw Bloomshed’s Pride and Prejudice, I knew it belonged on the Merlyn stage. It captures that rare lightning-in-a-bottle energy; reverent to Austen’s wit with a delicious critique of the current housing crisis. It’s a playful reimagining of a classic and exactly the kind of theatre Melbourne craves right now: bold, provocative and riotously funny.

Audiences are transported to the plush ballrooms of high society, where Mrs Bennet sees all too well the value of a strategic union. But her five daughters each have ambitions of their own. Jane and Elizabeth want to marry for love (whatever that means). Mary’s stuck in a goth phase, Lydia’s hot for the local militia, and Kitty is…well, we don’t need to talk about Kitty.

With the cost of living rising, and Mr Bennet played by a potted monstera, how will the family secure its spot on the property ladder?

Bloomshed is an award-winning collective of Australian artists who create cutting-edge political satire. From immersive installations to radical reimaginings of classic texts, they mix big ideas with entertaining and accessible storytelling. Since 2012 they have created 12 new devised and adapted works including Animal Farm, Paradise Lost, Bad News and The Nose.

Pride and Prejudice is created and performed by Laura Aldous, Elizabeth Brennan, Syd Brisbane, Emily Carr, John Marc Desengano, James Jackson, Anna Louey and Lauren Swain, with set design by Savanna Wegman, costume design by Samantha Hastings, lighting design by John Collopy, sound design by Justin Gardam and dramaturgy by Emily O’Connor.

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Season Details

Venue: Malthouse’s Merlyn Theatre
Date: 14-23 May 2026

For more information click HERE