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Sense
& Sensibility.
Based on Jane Austin’s novel, adapted
by Kate Hamill, directed by Eric Tucker.
Bedlam at The Gym at Judson, 243 Thompson Street, corner Washington
Square South, New York City.
212-477-0351; http://www.thegymatjudson.com/.
First opened Feb 14, 2016, closed March 6; reopened Aug 23; closes
Nov 20, 2016.
Reviewed by Lucy Komisar Oct 25, 2016.
The protagonists sometimes scowl, smirk, sneer, scream, run with
branches to represent a forest, are pushed around on roller chairs,
pass through moving doorways that reflect entrances and exits, and
occasionally face inches away from first-row audiences to pull them
into the plot. Not quite Bedlam but you get the very idea from this
troupe that believes in “the immediacy of the relationship between
the actor and the audience…collapsing aesthetic distance…[in]
a kinetic experience of shared empathy.”
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| Jason O’Connell as Edward Ferrars. |
The Bedlam theater company takes an early 19th-century soap opera
and turn it into serious sociology as comic slapstick with great success
in this adaptation by Kate Hamill and direction by Eric Tucker.
Jane Austin’s novel was published anonymously “By A Lady”
in 1811. Set in the late 1790s, it tells of the trials, loves, sorrows
of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, both of an age to marry.
And also of the young men of a certain class who were supposed to
succeed in life without a particular job, as long as they pleased
whoever would leave them an inheritance.
Pulling the present into the past, it starts with rock dancing and
moves to the circle dances of the 1800s, when women’s dresses
become empire gowns and the men get cutaway coats. It was a time when
the task of a young women of a certain class was to marry well and
of young men to pick a wife of wealth. The point is that the system,
all about money, strangled people of both sexes who wanted anything
other than cash.
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| John Russell as John Willoughby and Kate Hamill
as Marianne Dashwood. |
In this serious caricature, the problem is that when Mr. Dashwood
dies, the property, via primogeniture, goes to the son John (John
Russell) by a previous marriage, cutting out his widow and three daughters.
And when the son wants to adhere to his father’s wishes and
settle some money on them, his permanently purse-lipped nasty wife
Fanny (Laura Baranik) quashes that.
So the sisters have man problems. Because they have no money. And
John’s brother Edward (Jason O’Connell), a somewhat good-natured
but ineffectual fellow, might be a suitor but is practicing Shakespeare.
His ambition is to be happy, not wealthy or famous, but he has little
chance of either, since he is not allowed to have a profession.
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| Jason O’Connell as Edward leading his “horse.” |
This is a very physical, absurd, clownish production, including invisible
barking dogs. And a hokey encounter between the charming John Willoughby
(Russell) and daughter Marianne Dashwood (Kate Hamill), who talk poetry
at each other with exaggerated grimaces. Fanny is also adept at screeching
and howling like an animal, betraying some repressed instincts.
There are lovely gossipy choreographed numbers, including a dinner
with diners pushed on chairs directly to the audience to talk to them,
knives and forks in hand. When two carriages arrive, the passengers
are sitting on the upturned legs of two other performers. In another
scene, Edward Farrars arrives holding the reins of “a horse,”
a snorting actor. Characters brandish branches of trees. Scenery moves.
Gossips are caricatures. Lit chandeliers sway wildly over the stage.
Someone who is supposed to sing an aria sings “Aria, aria, aria,
aria!
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| The gossips eves-dropping on Marianne (Kate Hamill)
and a prospective beau. |
My favorite character is Mrs. Jennings (Nicole Lewis), the grinning,
jokey, white-capped mother of the Middletons, who give the Dashwoods
a place to live. She takes a good-natured match-making interest in
the proceedings. Though it turns out, alas, that the matches seem
derailed because the eligible men have other women. (It will be fixed.)
In the meantime, there are many gossips eves-dropping on lovers.
Carman Lacivita is excellent as the somewhat anguished Colonel Brandon
who likes Marianne but is initially discounted for his advanced 35
years. Jason O’Connell, who plays both Ferrars brothers, is
terrific as Robert, the funny obnoxious drunk. Kelley Curran is a
super smooth Elinor Dashwood, with choreographed elegance.
Violin music backdrops the free-for-all melees. Only suggestion I
would have is to cut the 2 ½ hours by at least 30 minutes.
A great Bedlam event.
Visit Lucy’s website
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