Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility has just begun at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company.? This is a more modern adaptation by Jon Jory, which, according to my friend Mary, leaves out big chunks of the book, and makes some relationships less understandable.
For which I’m grateful.? I cannot imagine much more packed into 2+ hours.? This guy turns out to be a bad guy, that guy isn’t great, either.? The best one in the bunch is not so exciting – but extremely well played by Giles Davies – so glad he’s back for a visit! The two Misses Dashwood (and two Mrs. Dashwoods for that matter) have some really bad luck in the love arena.
The set is simple, interesting, terrific.? Weird to see the talented Billy Chace in full costume mostly moving furniture around and opening doors as a servant.? He finally got maybe two minutes of dialogue as the doctor in two different appearances.? Jeremy Dubin is of course always spot on – has two roles, one as the gardener, the other as Mr. Dashwood, the older half-brother, married to an outright harridan who doesn’t care what kind of hard times others have.
Kelly Mengelkoch is Sense / Elinor and Sara Clark is Sensibility / Marianne.? Well played.? But at the end, after everything was all sorted out, as happens so often – I was trying to re-write those matches Jane Austen had made.? Not that it ever does me any good.
A play definitely worth seeing, and a company that is always a delight.? You have a whole month to get there.