Bedlam’s sold-out, critically acclaimed production of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, adapted for the stage by Kate Hamill, returns to New York under the direction of Eric Tucker. This highly theatrical, immersive production is presented by one of downtown’s most innovative theatre companies.
“Critic’s Pick: Gossip gallops in Bedlam’s invigorating stage version of Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’…The would-be and might-have-been lovers in this enchantingly athletic take on the perils of Austen-style courtship, adapted by Kate Hamill and directed by Eric Tucker, find themselves pushed and pulled by the forces of speculation run rampant. Why, a young woman can’t take tea with a friend without feeling that prying eyes and ears are pressed against the walls and windows, a sentiment to which the ensemble gives literal and very funny life. An ever-rising Babel of voices sometimes overrides the dialogue. And the scenery, which turns out to be highly mobile, has been mounted on casters, since it takes a well-oiled set of wheels to keep up with the velocity of rumor. And you thought Jane Austen was all sedentary sitting around and sewing. No troupe in New York these days rides the storytelling momentum of theater more resourcefully or enthusiastically than Bedlam.” – Ben Brantley, The New York Times