Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Tuesday 8th May 2018.
State Theatre Company of South Australia is presenting New Yorker,
Kate Hamill's adaptation of
Jane Austen's novel,
Sense and Sensibility, with Artistic Director,
Geordie Brookman, directing the augmented State Theatre Company Ensemble. The members of the Ensemble are Rachel Burke, Miranda Daughtry, Rashidi Edward, Dale March, Nathan O'Keefe, and Anna Steen. They are joined in this production by Lizzy Falkland, Geoff Revell, and Caroline Mignone. This is the fourth and final production
Henry Dashwood has died, leaving his money to John, the son of his first wife, according to the will of the uncle who had previously left his money to Henry. His second wife and her three daughters, Elinor, aged 19, Marianne, aged 16 1/2 (representing the sense and sensibility, respectively, of the title), and Margaret, aged 13, are left with very little income, and they leave Norland Park after John and his unpleasant wife, Fanny, move in. She treats them badly and persuades John to break his promise to his father that he would look after the second Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters. The four move to Barton Cottage, near to distant relations, the Middletons. Elinor is very unhappy at leaving as she is in love with Edward Ferrars, the brother-in-law of her half-brother John.
Among the people whom they meet are Colonel Brandon and John Willoughby. The Colonel is attracted to Marianne, but she considers him too old to love or to be loved by her. She falls for Willoughby, who later abandons her. Cutting a very, very long, and involved story short, Edward and Elinor eventually marry, as do Marianne and Colonel Brandon, and both couples live as neighbours, close to their mother and youngest sister.
In this production, the story is still there, and dialogue is taken from the novel but, if you are expecting a faithful and reverential reproduction, you are going to be very disappointed. This production has been turned into a broad comedy, with roller skates and a child's tricycle, being ridden by cast members, furniture on wheels making its own entrance, thanks to a hefty push from somebody in the wings, caricatures, rather than characters, and even a direct steal from Monty Python, as members play horses, complete with clip-clopping half coconut shells. Everybody gets to wear bonnets.
There is music, adapted by Stuart Day and the cast, and played on diverse instruments including a resonator ukulele and a kazoo, which brought forward a few laughs. The relevance of them was lost on me since, I was informed, it was all pop music, possibly from the 1980s, of which I know nothing.
This is not, it should be emphasised, quite the same as productions of
Kate Hamill's adaptation that have been seen elsewhere, as a glance at YouTube will reveal. This is Brookman's interpretation of her adaptation. There were laughs in her original production, in which she played Marianne, but there is humour in the novel, anyway. This version, though, has descended into a surreal farce.
Love or hate the approach that has been taken with this production, though, there are some marvellous performances.
Anna Steen and Miranda Daughtry play Elinor and Marianne, the only two who play their roles relatively straight, and the only two who play just the one role. The other seven tackle three or four roles apiece, including generic roles as a sort of Greek chorus of gossips and servants.
Steen continues to impress, and this is another wonderful performance from her as she creates the serious and sensible, Elinor. It is clear that there is a big future ahead for her. One of the newer artists, Daughtry, who won the Adelaide Critics Circle Emerging Artist Award, last year, gives a strong performance as the other side of the coin, the emotionally driven Marianne. They have a great rapport in their roles as sisters, complementing each other with a natural ease.
O'Keefe (Edward Ferrars, Robert Ferrars, and Lady Middleton), Falkland (Fanny Dashwood and Mrs. Jennings), Revell (Sir John Middleton and Mrs. Ferrars), and Mignone (Mrs. Dashwood and
Anne Steele) are long-term State Theatre alumni and have each contributed many excellent performances over the years. It will come as no surprise that they all offer superb performances again here.
Emerging artists, Burke (Margaret Dashwood and Lucy Steele), Edward (John Willoughby and Thomas), and March (John Dashwood and Colonel Brandon), may be less familiar names, at this stage, but you are sure to hear more of them in the future.
Ailsa Paterson's design is an extremely elegant box set, with a spinet in the corner and plenty of doors for gossips and servants to peek through and eavesdrop on the action, plus a considerable array of moveable items to create less salubrious and other internal and external locations,
Geoff Cobham's carefully thought out lighting design assisting with defining time and place. Wardrobe supervisor, Emma Brockliss, has outfitted the cast wonderfully, Austen's numerous ladies, in particular, looking marvellous in their Empire Line dresses.
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