Stratford Festival 2025/Sense and Sensibility by Kate Hamill based on the novel by Jane Austen, directed by Daryl Cloran, Festival Theatre, closes Oct 25.
Sense and Sensibility
Photo: David Hou
Stratford’s production of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is an absolute delight, due to the 2014 adaptation by American playwright Kate Hamill, who is known for her comedic adaptations of classic novels with a feminist slant including Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, Vanity Fair, and others.
The story of Sense and Sensibility is like all of Austen’s novels with romantic couples struggling to sort out their love affairs. The Dashwood sisters, Elinor (Jessica B. Hill)—representing sense and restraint—and Marianne (Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane)—representing sensibility and passion—find themselves destitute after their father’s death, due to their brother John Dashwood’s * inheritance and his wife Fanny’s cold-hearted greed. They are forced to rely on the kindness of their cousin Sir John Middleton (Steve Ross), who offers them a cottage to live in.
Elinor’s romantic entanglement with Edward Ferrars (Thomas Duplessie), a man as emotionally repressed as she is, mirrors Marianne’s impassioned pursuit of John Willoughby (Andrew Chown), even as she is pursued by the steady Colonel Brandon (Shane Carty).
That is the framework of Austen’s narrative—but this brilliant adaptation transcends simple storytelling. What Kate Hamill has created is an inventive, original work of modern theatrical playfulness, full of direct address, improvisational energy, and, most delightfully, a chorus of gossips (Christopher Allen, Jenna Lee Hyde, Celia Aloma, Jesse Gervais and Julie Lumsden).
The five gossips—commentators, narrators, and stagehands all in one—move furniture, act as props, spy on characters, and become our eyes and ears onstage. They are witty, sharp, and bitchy, and they wear the most outrageous Georgian hats imaginable. Through them, we follow the Dashwood sisters’ emotional journeys, as Hamill transforms interior thoughts into external action. It’s a joyous theatrical device that brings Austen’s themes to vivid life.
Director Daryl Cloran embraces Hamill’s modern theatricality with gusto. He focuses on the sisterly bond between Elinor and Marianne and on their contrasting temperaments, while leaning into the play’s ensemble energy and physicality. Dana Osborne’s design is integral to this vision—her rolling furniture, picture-frame doors, and clever use of portable set pieces become part of the action. The gossips constantly reconfigure the stage, framing and reframing the characters in inventive ways. The result is visually dynamic and full of rhythm.
In the original novel, Austen presented a class-bound society where women were repressed, and her book was clearly a critique of patriarchal values and emotional suppression—delivered with wit and sharp observation. Hamill’s adaptation and Cloran’s direction retain all of that social commentary. The gossips, especially, embody the scrutiny and judgment of Austen’s world while allowing modern audiences to laugh at its absurdities. Cloran’s goal, as he notes in the program, is to balance Austen’s emotional truth with present-day comedic energy and I think he succeeds because Austen’s truth, as I stated before, is not forgotten.
Some might think the comedy and wit come at the expense of emotional depth, but the opposite is true. The comedy enhances the emotional resonance of what Elinor and Marianne experience. Through direct address and visible emotion, the audience feels their inner conflicts expressed outwardly in physical action.
As for the costumes, Osborne’s period silhouettes are intentionally exaggerated to allow for quick changes and character doubling as except for Hill and Sinclair-Brisbane, all the other actors perform several roles. There’s a cartoonish edge to it all, but it adds to the show’s delight. The gossips’ use of their bodies as props—forming a carriage, moving set pieces, becoming walls or furniture—is pure theatrical fun. And those picture-frame doors are genius: people pose, peer, sneak, and eavesdrop through them. It’s playful, ingenious, and quintessentially theatrical.
The cast is first-rate. Hill is a marvellously restrained Elinor, while Sinclair-Brisbane is all fire and heart as Marianne. Duplessis brings a sweet awkwardness to Edward Ferrars and doubles as his brother Robert with crisp contrast. Chown gives a dashing yet conflicted Willoughby and also plays the downtrodden John Dashwood. Seana McKenna shines in dual roles as the fierce Mrs. Ferrars and the gregarious Mrs. Jennings, and Sarah Farb’s Fanny Ferrars Dashwood is deliciously mean-spirited yet balanced by her gentle Lady Middleton. Carty makes a fine, steadfast Colonel Brandon, while Ross offers warmth and joviality as Sir John Middleton.
But let’s hear it for the five gossips who are a show unto themselves. Bitchy, observant, and irresistible, they carry the production’s rhythm and charm. Their interplay gives this Sense and Sensibility its comic pulse.
Lively, inventive, and full of theatrical flair, this is not your usual stolid Austen production. It’s pure Kate Hamill—and I suspect Jane Austen would have loved it, because everything she wanted to say is gloriously intact.