Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane stars as Marianne Dashwood (left) and Jessica B. Hill as Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, running until October this year at the Stratford Festival.David Hou/Supplied
Title: Sense and Sensibility
Written by: Kate Hamill, based on the novel by Jane Austen
Performed by: Jessica B. Hill, Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane, Jade V. Robinson, Glynis Ranney, Andrew Chown, Sara Farb, Thomas Duplessie, Seana McKenna, Steve Ross, Shane Carty
Directed by: Daryl Cloran
Company: Stratford Festival
Venue: Festival Theatre
City: Stratford, Ont.
Year: Until Oct. 25
If you’re chomping at the bit for the next season of Bridgerton, you might want to head to the Stratford Festival, which on Thursday night opened a splashy, earnest production of Sense and Sensibility, adapted for the stage by American playwright Kate Hamill.
But Daryl Cloran’s production – though playful, charming and uniformly well-acted – feels nearly as long as the wait for the next season of Netflix’s faux-historical romance. At just under three hours, the show’s length might be a coup for the most devout fans of Jane Austen, book lovers eager to be immersed for as long as possible in the well-mannered finery of early-1800s England.
But for the rest of us, the production is just plain long.
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It’s anyone’s guess why Hamill’s script preserves nearly every repetitive escapade from Austen’s episodic novel – every countryside stroll, every protracted supper and every afternoon sipping tea in the parlour of Barton Cottage.
Cloran, who also serves as artistic director of the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, does what he can to counter the oddly lengthy text. (And in Hamill’s defense, the play prescribes a few clever flourishes that Cloran executes flawlessly.)
But the runtime is a significant stumbling block for an otherwise dandy production.
Read more reviews from the Stratford Festival
The good news is that the play looks, sounds and feels just lovely – while there are far too many scenes, they tick along like carriage wheels as the Dashwood sisters search for love and happiness after the death of their father. Jessica B. Hill and Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane are marvellous as Elinor and Marianne, sunny and bright in their deeply-felt sisterhood. Andrew Chown and Thomas Duplessie, too, are terrific as suitors John Willoughby and Edward Ferrars, respectively. (Jade V. Robinson is also excellent as little sister Margaret.)
Sense and Sensibility boasts a capable cast, that ably taps into the swoony wiles of Jane Austen’s beloved novel.David Hou/Supplied
In her script, Hamill suggests a small ensemble of gossips who approximate a Greek chorus, and in Cloran’s production, they’re a highlight. The gossips, clad in massive feathered hats and bright velvet getups (kudos to set and costume designer Dana Osborne for the show’s luxe, colourful wardrobe), don’t just comment on the action, but pour fuel on it. As Sense and Sensibility unspools, the gossips spin stories from the goings-on of the Dashwood sisters’ clandestine inner lives, and ultimately, they play a bigger role in the show than you might think: Jesse Gervais is a standout, as is Christopher Allen.
Indeed, Sense and Sensibility boasts a starry, capable cast, and they all ably tap into the swoony wiles of Austen’s beloved novel. At a certain point, you may want to grab Elinor by the shoulders and shake, pleading with her to be honest with her sister (and a certain someone else) about her feelings — the vibes are just right for such a classic rom-com.
Cloran’s strongest choices are those that deviate from naturalism — movement director Julie Tomaino’s stylized dance sequences, for instance, and Jonathan Lewis’s surprisingly contemporary score. Scenes that see the gossips reimagined as helpful animals à la Fifteen Dogs are a hoot and a half, and a shocking image that opens the show makes great use of the Festival Theatre’s high ceilings.
Indeed, there’s a Netflix-style cutting edge to Cloran’s production, with plenty of intriguing visual moments to enjoy and unpack. There’s no shortage of poignancy, either – Hill and Sinclair-Brisbane play beautifully against each other, and the final happily-ever-after feels appropriately earned.
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But despite the commendable work happening both onstage and off, even the most inspired of vignettes isn’t enough to keep Hamill’s script from feeling a touch stale.
Sense and Sensibility isn’t the only page-to-stage adaptation playing at the Stratford Festival this summer – but it’s by far the most literal interpretation of an existing text. Kat Sandler’s Anne of Green Gables preserves Lucy Maud Montgomery’s sweet tales of Atlantic girlhood, but amps up the book’s potential for drama; Forgiveness, too, creatively re-interprets its central story for a live audience.
Sense and Sensibility isn’t half-bad, and it’s a testament to the unusually consistent strength of this year’s Stratford lineup that it’s not on my list of must-sees. Of course, your (horse and carriage) mileage may vary – but you might be better off holding out for Bridgerton’s fourth season next year.
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