Barbara Brennan returns to Pride and Prejudice at the Gate

FOR Barbara Brennan it’s a case of déjà vu all over again. The Dublin thespian, one of the nation’s finest actresses, is currently playing Lady Catherine de Bourgh in tThe Gate’s lavish adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

It’s not the first time she’s tackled the part. Brennan first appeared as Lady Catherine — the formidable nemesis of heroine Elizabeth Bennet — in the Gate’s original version back in 1995. When it was revived in 2002 she resumed the role. And now, she’s dusting it down once more for the play’s newest incarnation, again directed by Alan Stanford.

“It is the same production and I think I’m the only actor that’s been in all three,” says Brennan. “Obviously, the Bennet girls always change because they have to be young. I have ‘the advantage’ of being the old lady. When I did it originally I think I was probably a bit too young but I’m growing into it, as they say.”