Underneath a wealth of cross-gendering, social ritual-ribbing, exploring of mixtures of realism, non-realism, and theatrical performance “isms,” Sense and Sensibility has a basic story. Two sisters in a family being displaced from their home by their father’s death must cope with a society stratified through wealth, status, and sexual/gender roles. This story keeps FSU/Asolo Conservatory’s production in the realm of Jane Austen’s novel, even though audiences may find unlikeable distractions from the narrative basics.
The central Dashwood sisters are Rebecca Rose Mims’s sensible but authoritative Elinor and a too-trusting Marianne, inclined toward romanticism. Sharon Pearlman shows Marianne’s foibles even while continually winning sympathy. Nothing, unfortunately, will stop her from falling too deeply for Trezure Coles’ smooth-talking Willoughby. Still he/she may be somewhat acquitted eventually for masculine deceptions.
Isaiah Phillips scores affirmatively whenever he acts with or favoring Elinor as Edward Ferrars. This is important, since Edward’s a brother of Fanny, the busybody (Brooke Turner, strong if a bit too masculine) of the large Dashwood family. The romantic pursuit of Marianne gets adequate treatment by Falcian Page as loving Colonel Brandon. Brielle Rivera Headrington plays the main Dashwood women’s younger sister Margaret with much energy, but nothing in Kate Hamill’s script denotes her importance to the action.
Almost everyone in the supporting cast doubles, each most often and consistently as a Gossip. It’s not always easy to figure out who’s playing the characters who aren’t Dashwoods but who affect or are affected by them. Their arrangement keeps an audience guessing more than does the outcome of the main plot.
Michelle Hart's Hair and Make-Up and Jordan Jeffers's mostly ostentatious costumes manage to be workable too, despite the wearers’ doubling, often quickly, from one sex to another. Michelle Harts’s hair and clothing designs help much. Alex Pinchon’s sound, as usual, is well modulated, even when imitating clackety coach wheels and thunder. The program lists no specific designer of the excellent varied lighting but records the light board involved is operated by Elle Miller.
Of paramount importance is the major wooden constructivist set that creates many places on many levels for both action and activity. Jeffrey Weber made it seemingly easy for the actors to arrange and rearrange parts of the scenery as well as embellish it. The director’s choice to show parts of actual backstage and sidestages with actors resting before, during, and after full-stage performance fits the novel converted into a play. Sometimes, though, actions of those not onstage may distract. Props contribute positively.
Guest director James Dean Palmer here gets radically into what I think of as SEX-ification of characters—much more so than he last did for FSU/Asolo Conservatory with Julius Caesar. I don’t remember any of it in his previous direction of Arcadia.
Even though there’s nice growth in interracial casting, I think any further tinkering with sexual role changing won’t be progress. It’s a good thing that Palmer had such well-developed student actors for the present version of Sense and Sensibility.
