Review - Bedlam's Sense & Sensibility

I believe we all know that I'm a Jane Austen devotee.  I enjoy her novels and delicious observations about life, love and society.  I've read all of her books a number of times and have seen most of the film adaptations - have you ever seen Kandukondain Kandukondain, the Bollywood version of Sense and Sensibility?  It's very good, though a little long.  Of course, the 1995 film version of S & S, adapted by and starring the sublime Emma Thompson, is an especial favorite of mine.  I'm getting a little teary thinking of the late, great Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon.  Moving on... I hated myself for missing Bedlam theater company's production a couple of seasons ago - when they announced a revival, I pounced.   I was supposed to see it a couple of weeks ago, but was too sick to go.  I gave the ticket to a co-worker, who enjoyed the production, even though she's never read the book.  Imagine my shock and horror to hear that an educated young woman hadn't read the book.  I'll do a reader's theater version of my reaction for you someday...

I've only been to the Gym at Judson once before, to see Michael John LaChiusa's Queen of the Mist, and the space was used completely differently for that show than for Sense & Sensibility.  Here, the audience is on two sides, with three rows of chairs, on risers.  The first two rows are nice chairs, like dining room chairs, with padding.  The third row, on the top riser, is filled with plastic bar chairs, with no padding.  I think you can guess where I sat.  I started to fear that I would either 1) have a stroke from the hard plastic seat and dangling my short legs that couldn't touch the ground, or 2) laugh and fall over backwards off the riser.  That led to my perching myself on the edge of the plastic seat, in a very uncomfortable position, and also explains the backache and neckache I have today.  If my seat neighbor were writing a blog, I'm sure he'd be complaining about the crazy girl sitting next to him who kept fidgeting and flexing her feet and ankles.  But it was stroke prevention, I promise...

photo credit: Ashley Garrett

Even with all that fear, I had a grand time at Sense & Sensibility.  The show is very smartly adapted and directed for a cast of ten versatile actors.  Obviously, I already love the story and it is being told here very well.  Most of the actors play more than one role and they do so beautifully.  Each character is perfectly delineated and shows so many of the foibles that Austen captured so well.  Everyone had the opportunity to make me laugh and everyone had the opportunity to make me cry.  If I cried the most at the love story between Elinor and Edward, well, ok.  I usually do.  Elinor was beautifully played by Bedlam company co-founder Andrus Nichols, with a lot of dignity and vulnerability.  As she began to unbend and understand more of the world (which she claimed to understand at the beginning of the play), her great charm and emotion were more on her sleeve, yet still in a reserved, Elinor-ish way.  Nichols was just grand.  As was Jason O'Connell (who I've seen several times before, and especially loved in a friend of mine's wonderful play Penny Penniworth) as Edward.  He perfectly captures Edward's shyness and appeal, his inner strength and fear of hurting other people.  Their coming together was quite a moving moment at the end of the play.  But I may have even more affection for O'Connell's turn as Edward's loutish younger brother, Robert, who has a show-stoppingly funny scene at a dinner party gone terrifyingly (and hysterically) wrong. 

But everyone was really good.  I enjoyed much of the staging - I liked the set pieces that were on wheels and when moments of the lead characters' despair was physicalized by the spinning furniture.  I enjoyed the uses of music throughout and the ingenious uses of minimal costumes and set pieces.  I have to admit, from time to time, there was a bit of a in-joke quality to things, especially at the beginning and end of the show.  There was one gent in the cast who was a little too impressed with himself and had that look on his face that said "my theater company is so cool and we've made this silly book better," but at least he was only one person.  And I maybe winced a bit at some of the overly wacky scenes when a little more restraint may have worked better.  But, on the whole, this was a good-natured and playful production that showed a lot of Austen's characters in a fine light and told a beloved story well.  Thumbs up from me.