The cast’s adaptability in playing a wide range of characters occasionally overshadowed by lack of polish
Sense and sensibility is a delightful book to take on as a play. Jane Austen writes in such a witty way with plenty of twists and turns to give actors great material to work with. The adaptation by Nicky Diss chose to sensitively empower the sisterly relationships that shine through in Austen’s novel whilst the romantic relationships took more of a backseat. Whilst the cast took on a variety of roles, the script and longer scenes between the sisters put these relationships in the spotlight. An enjoyable addition to the script was the acknowledgements of the small nature of the cast, occasionally having characters ask where one of their other characters were or remarking upon missing characters. It landed well and wasn’t overused.
The performance started with a musical number which wasn’t expected. The style of the songs matched Austen’s Georgian period writing, however, the songs felt slightly jarring. Whether it was the lack of feeling coming through the singing, or the fact that the melodies were overly simplistic, it didn’t quite have the desired effect of a slick opening number. This felt the same for the other songs before and after the intervals. The harmonies in the final song were notable and heartwarming, which did have an improved effect for the end of the show.
The cast for this Thick as Thieves production did an impressive job of playing multiple different roles. It was clear that they each enjoyed playing specific characters such as Judd’s Mrs Jennings or Smithers’ Fanny Dashwood. The delightful nature of Austen’s characters does a lot of the work for a performance like this. However, for some of the characters there was a lack of consistency in performances. Anne Steele was a little clunky compared to the shining performance of Marianne and Mrs Dashwood felt too stiff compared to the sensitivity of Colonel Brandon. This gave rise to a question over how much different characters had been rehearsed.
In addition, there were a number of moments that lacked polish throughout. There was quite a lot of tripping over lines from most of the cast, and as raised already the songs could have used work. There was a lot of moving scenery to depict the different places that the cast were moving between. I felt this could have been better incorporated into the movements of scenes as the moves as they were felt a bit clunky. If you study other shows there are a number of clever ways to incorporate scenery changes that could have been implemented here to better effect.
Overall the show was fun and captured the sweet relations between the Dashwood sisters. With more polish, the cast would have pulled off the full extent of the cleverness of Sense and Sensibility.