SENSE & SENSIBILITY (Sun & Moon Theatre)*****

By Megan

Link to Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRoBznfqD2k

Link to Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93uF-Ksqq_k&t=13871s

Available until: Unknown

I haven’t read Sense & Sensibility yet. I have read Emma Thompson’s screenplay which is really good but not the novel. But I have read Pride & Prejudice and Northanger Abbey. Northanger Abbey is my favourite book ever and I dressed up as Catherine Morland for World Book Day. I was going to read Sense & Sensibility next but then I found out about the reading and I thought it would be nice to hear someone of my favourite actors reading it instead.

The reading is nearly fifteen hours long so it took me a week to watch all of it but it is really good. It’s a really good story with lots of really great characters. Even the horrible characters are brilliant and there are some characters who might be quite difficult to listen to in real life but Jane Austen makes them fun.

I think it is sad that lots of people dislike Marianne. I think she is lovely when she notices there is something wrong but she is not very good at noticing so she needs someone to tell her. Her emotions are really big so maybe she can’t see small emotions very well. Marianne does think Elinor must be sad about leaving Edward because it would be strange if she wasn’t but Elinor won’t admit to being sad and I think in the end Marianne believes her. When Marianne does realise someone is upset, she wants to make them feel better. And I think if a clever man like Colonel Brandon loves her, she must be a good person.

There are lots of actors I know who took part in this reading. Most of the people I know are from The Show Must Go Online but there are also some from the UK Actors Support Network reading of The Winter’s Tale, including Melissa Barrett and David Johnson who host the Jane Austen readings.

I wrote down all the names of people I recognised but I think there are still too many people to mention so I will just mention a few people and I hope nobody will be sad that I didn’t mention them. All the actors are so brilliant and they all helped me so much with understanding this book which is too grown up for me really but I feel like I did understand it and I love it.

Maryam Grace and Hasna Haidar both play Elinor and Marianne. Ms Haidar has to do a big breakdown scene as Marianne and it made me feel so sad for her. I don’t think Ms Haidar is a professional actor but she is more than good enough to be one. Ms Grace plays Marianne when she is ill and that is really sad too. At the end of the book, Marianne goes through some changes and Natasha Stiven shows this really well.

Ms Grace and Ms Haidar are also good as Elinor and I also like Honey Gabriel in that role. She is a sensible Elinor but she is compassionate. I really like Julie Martis and Melanie Lam as Elinor too.

David Johnson and Karim Hadaya are two of the actors who play Edward. Mr Johnson is so loving with Elinor and it is beautiful to watch. It is especially nice when Melissa Barrett plays Elinor because they live together and they share a screen and they have an extra connection which you can see and feel. Mr Hadaya is a more awkward Edward and that is really lovely too. I like heroes who aren’t completely sure of themselves.

Mr Hadaya also plays Willoughby and I think he is very charming. Andrew Mockler does a scene which isn’t in the screenplay where Willoughby hears Marianne is ill and goes to see Elinor. It is a really emotional scene and Mr Mockler performs it really well. Jonathan Kydd and Duncan Hess have lots of presence as Colonel Brandon and they make him really trustworthy and wise.

I also really like Danielle Farrow as Mrs Dashwood and she has my favourite costume too. I liked it when Ms Farrow played Mrs Dashwood with Honey Gabriel as Elinor. I know them both from TSMGO and I started fangirling about Eleanor of Aquitaine and Paulina from The Winter’s Tale being mother and daughter. I was probably being very silly but it made me happy. Tahir Ashraf is a brilliantly horrible John Dashwood, Melissa Barrett is a sweet Margaret, and Tamara Rittenhaler and Lucy Litchfield are really good at showing Lucy Steele’s personality. Anna Carteret, Elizabeth Dennehy and Lynsey Beauchamp are all really funny as Mrs Jennings.

I was also really excited to find out Lucy has a sister! She isn’t in the screenplay but she sounds like a great character too. I know lots of girls like Miss Steele who talk about boys all the time. There are some really funny Miss Steeles including Chloe Wigmore and MJ Roberts.

Obviously, this is a reading of a book, not a play so there were also lots of Narrators reading the parts of the books which weren’t speech. David Horovitch, Emily Carding, Eleanor Neylon, Jeff King and David Johnson are just some of the brilliant Narrators I recognised but there are loads of good Narrators. I don’t think I know Rosemary Lippard but she has a really lovely voice.

I think this reading is a very good way of getting to know Sense & Sensibility. It is read well by every actor and I also learned a lot about different ways the characters could be played which helped me to understand them better. I am looking forward to watching the readings of the other books and I really hope the Sun & Moon Theatre have a reading of Northanger Abbey at some point. I think the actors I saw in Sense & Sensibility would perform the roles really well.