Sense and Sensibility

My literary experience of Jane Austen does not include Sense and Sensibility although I have seen most of the TV adaptations of Austen’s works. Perhaps this spoilt me for the stage version since my expectations were of being transported to the early 19th century by a combination of sight and sounds but mostly the former. Comfortably furnished rooms and plenty of lavish costumes were in my mind’s eye but the limitations of space and budget reduced both to a more minimalist representation. Usually there would be nothing wrong with that approach but Austen on-stage perhaps demands a little more sensory input than the dialogue alone. The plot itself rations the amount of dramatic tension that can be presented on-stage and the need for most of the characters to maintain iron-willed self-control in the face of adversity means that subtle facial expressions alone can convey the truth beneath the dissembling. This works well on TV or film but less well on stage. As a consequence the most lively moments were presented by those whose characters were deliberately un-constrained; Beth Crozier as the delightful busy-body Aunt Jennings and Liam Mayle during his one flash of anger and frustration as Willoughby.

Inevitably the second act was the more involving because the modest tension built up in Act One, such as the question over Colonel Brandon’s former love life, the true relationship between Lucy Steele and Edward Ferrars and of course, the secrets of Willoughby’s caddish behavior, were all unraveled. This is not to say that the acting was not good: it was but the genre required that the dialogue should take precedence over the creation of any significant dramatic stakes. This meant that we could delight in Donna Stevenson’s impulsive and very pretty characterization of Marianne and marvel at both the emotional control and apparent detachment of Helen Quigley’s Elinor but it did not mean that we became desperate to see how the play would end. I liked both Roger Saddington’s self-deprecating and stolid Colonel Brandon as well as the timid, unambitious but loyal Ferrars, played by Nick Milenkovic. However, the translation of this Jane Austen classic onto the stage didn’t quite work for me since the descriptive part of the original text or the colourful TV  portrayal of context and close-ups had no on-stage equivalent, leaving a slight shadow where there should have been dramatic light.

Having said all this I did enjoy the production but it takes some going to top Dads Army!  

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