There comes a time when finding a gift for your mother is nearly impossible. My mother will often say that I don’t need to get her anything or that she doesn’t want anything. A good daughter ignores comments like those. So, I decided to give my mother a gift that would keep giving – a season subscription to Actors Theatre.
Over the course of the seven-play season, I will provide a brief review of each of the plays. I’m not an avid theater-goer and don't pretend to know the intricacies of the theater, but I know what I like, so I will simply relate what Mom and I thought of the performance.
The first play in the season is Jon Jory’s adaption of Jane Austen’s 1811 novel, Sense & Sensibility. The story is about the Dashwood women who begin a new life after the death of their father. Mr. Dashwood dies and leaves his estate, including the house, to his son from a previous marriage. Uncomfortable living under her stepson's and daughter-in-law's home, the widowed Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters find other living arrangements. A distant relative of Mrs. Dashwood offers them his four-bedroom cottage some ways away from the Dashwood estate.
The focus of the story is the social life and love life of two of the Dashwood daughters, Elinor and Marianne. The third daughter, Margaret, is mentioned in a way that you know she is much younger than Elinor and Marianne, but she is never seen. (This reminded me of how TV shows will often focus on a lead character’s pregnancy and delivery, but rarely show the baby in subsequent episodes, only casually referring to the whereabouts of the child before slowly dropping all references.)
Mom and I felt the performance was good, but neither of us were particularly blown away by it. The actors, Nancy Lemenager, as Elinor, and Helen Sadler, as Marianne, played believable roles, but I never really felt empathy for their characters. They spoke “proper” English in British accents, often at such a speed that it was difficult to hear them or follow the conversation. At times, I found my mind wandering, trying to remember the 1995 Emma Thompson movie-version of the play for some clarity. The nearly twenty-character cast and references to “Mr. So-and-So” or “Miss So-and-So” made it difficult to recall who was who. I felt like I needed a scorecard to keep up!
Mom and I recognized actress Colette Delaney, who plays Lady Middleton and Mrs. Ferrars, from her numerous performances at Derby Dinner Playhouse and were excited to see her name listed in the cast. We expected her to have a larger role and were disappointed that she had very few lines and little onstage presence.
All in all, Sense & Sensibility was an enjoyable performance, but a tad too high-brow for my taste. I expected Mom to enjoy it more, but she agreed that it was just “okay.” We're looking forward to seeing Tom Sawyer next month.
Sense & Sensibility runs through September 24. For ticketing information and the performance schedule, visit Actors’ Theatre.
