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Kate Hamill’s stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is the latest from the FSU/Asolo School of Music.
Hamill’s plays are comedies. Austen’s novels are not. This double vision is the comic engine that drives the show.
Playwright’s comics strategy assumes you know the source material.
Based on the audience’s reaction, many did. As the “Rocky Horror” crowd came alive, they reacted ahead of time to the twists and references of the story. (A die-hard Jane Austen fan, no doubt.) They knew the story was cold.
If you skipped Jane Austen’s reading assignment, here’s the gist.
England is the place; the time is 1811. The Dashwoods and their three daughters, Eleanor (Rebecca Rose Mims), Marianne (Sharon Pearlman) and Margaret (Brielle Reeve) La Heidlington) lives happily in a mansion in Sussex.
Then Mr Dashwood suddenly fell to the ground and died. Their happiness is also gone.
Thanks to primogeniture, the sisters’ wife-scary half-brother John (Ricky Watson Jr.) inherits everything. His unkind wife (Brook Turner) told him to keep it. He said, “Yes, dear.” And expelled the housewife.
Isáyah Phillips, Sharon Pearlman and Rebecca Rose Mims express emotion in Sense and Sensibility. (Photo courtesy of Frank Artura.)
Dashwood’s widow and three daughters had nothing but a stingy allowance. A family friend provided accommodation in a cramped Cornish cottage. Margaret was still a child. But Eleanor and Marianne could marry.
Finding a suitable husband (ie: “rich”) is their only way out of the cabin. Fortunately, the sisters met two suitable suitors.
Marianne finds the bohemian Willoughby (Treyzul Coles). Eleanor finds soulful Edward Ferras (Isaiah Phillips). Love blooms! Then, without any explanation, the suitor dumped the sisters.
Will true love reunite them? Most of you probably know that. If not, read a book or watch a play.
It sounds like a love story, but it’s not. At least don’t let the gossip buddies pay close attention to the Dashwood sisters’ misfortune. In their materialist minds, wealth is the real story.
Their chatter about marital rights is like a stock market report…
When Lord X’s mum whines, he gets a huge inheritance. (Rise!) The Dashwood sisters lost their fortune. (massive sell-off!)
These nosy high-society idiots are fully aware of the sisters’ lost love — and completely indifferent. Marrying for love? What does love have to do with it? Sensible women marry for money. Smart gentlemen are also calculating.
The gossip scoffs at the sisters’ story. But they are looking outside. They turn a blind eye to their inner story.
For Eleanor and Marianne, the inner story is tragic. Hamill told the story. But her scenes are still hilarious.
How did she do it? I will get back to you.
Director James Dean Palmer brought Hamill’s farce to a climax. His physical comedy owes a huge director debt to Monty Python. The cross-dressed man speaks in a sharp “Pepperpot” way. Other actors simulate horses by beating coconuts.
The audience alternated between belly laughter and sobbing thanks to Palmer’s direction. But he just stayed true to the script.
Hamill’s play is more like two plays. One is ridiculous playfulness; the other is crying tragedy.
They don’t belong together. But they were trapped in the same theater elevator.
The Conservatory’s cast made the most of this schizophrenic saga. Some play directly.
Eleanor of Mims is a rational person who has a short heart and thinks only of herself. Pearlman’s Marianne is a free spirit who can speak her mind as she pleases. As for their heartthrobs, Ferras of Phillips is a good guy. Willoughby at Coles is a cad but still a good lad. Not intending to hurt the ladies either. Both did it. They blame wills, inheritances and hormones.
(It’s like society’s fault you know?)
Walking on the stupid side, Mrs Jennings is a relic of the sentimental Georgian era. She feels, talks and shares.
The wise Regents in their 30s roll their eyes.
(Think of old hippies chatting with stockbrokers in the 1980s.)
Heidlington’s Childish Margaret provides periodic comedy without exaggeration. As a complete brat, she can be annoying.
Hamill’s comedy/tragedy comes to life in Jeffrey Weber’s versatile set. It’s part tree castle, part MC Escher’s dream, and completely devoid of historical realism. Jordan Jeff’s quirky outfits are equally historic. All these crazy creative genres, gender twists, and rule-breaking add up to a very entertaining drama. I laughed, but don’t know why.
What kind of game is it?
This is not a parody of Austen’s novel. Hamill takes the story seriously and cares about its characters. But she wraps it in a puffy ball with a silly surface. Why is it so funny? Who is she making fun of?
My best guess? The ruling class in Regency England was crazy about keeping up appearances. Vanity, hallucination, glitter and filigree, outward display, hallucination, posture and conceit. As the sage has always said, none of this matters.
In the minds of England’s elite, that’s what matters. That’s Hamill’s sarcasm.
She likes this story. She hates this society. get it? Without reading Austen’s novels, probably not.
If you’ve never seen a Western, it’s like watching “Blazing Saddles.”
Jane Austen superfans are sure to get the joke. They’ll come to Hamill’s play with a nuanced foreknowledge of the regency society the story satirizes. They know the society so well they don’t even have to think about it.
good stuff. Regency society is downright nasty. If you think about it too much, it starts to spoil the fun.
England in 1811 was a dystopia for 50% of its inhabitants.
Women have no property rights – including upper class women. Their lives and livelihoods depend entirely on powerful people. This is a man’s world and a woman’s nightmare. It’s not funny at all.
But don’t listen to me, gentle reader.
Do not think. Just laughing and enjoying the drama.
This is a sensible thing to do.
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