Sense and Sensibility

Today I attended a matinee in the Bowmer Theatre of the next play in my OSF visit, Jane Austin’s Sense and Sensibility. I had seen this a year or so ago at the Livermore Shakespeare Festival, but I didn’t really have any remembrances as I watched this. This is basically a story about British manners and social structure as well as the big role that wealth and position played in identifying an appropriate mate. The staging was interesting as the set was basically a room with a curving staircase up to a second level, but they made it work for so many different scenes; different rooms, exteriors and people chasing other people around. Beyond the usual story, they brought out a very interesting aspect by showing cultural pressure on people by continually having the non-focus actors becoming part of a chorus of “Gossips” who swirled and twittered in the background of various scenes, really portraying this negative cultural feature. It was also interesting that with a relatively small cast the rotated actors between various roles, sometimes without changing costume, but it never seemed confusing as to who they were supposed to be. It was an enjoyable play and the cast was rock solid.
Trailer