The Dashwood sisters fall truly, madly, deeply in love once again as South Coast Repertory treats Jane Austen fans to Sense And Sensibility, its daringly cast and deliciously performed 2018-2019 season opener.

 Movie buffs will recognize Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, brought to indelible big screen life by Emma Thompson and Kate Winslett and on stage at South Coast Rep by Hilary Ward and Rebecca Mozo, early 19th-century sisters denied by English law the inheritance rights women take for granted these days.

It doesn’t help that their recently deceased father’s heir (Matt Orduña as the girls’ half-brother John) has been cajoled by his money-grubbing wife Fanny (Abigail Marks) into pocketing the three-thousand pounds per annum the evicted Dashwoods’ father had intended as their due. (That’s about a hundred thousand dollars a year in contemporary currency!)

 The cottage offered them by cousin Sir John Middleton (Orduña again) does provide Elinor and Marianne, their mother Mrs. Dashwood (Nike Doukas), and their younger sister Margaret (Desirée Mee Jung) with a place to live, but if either young woman is to find any sort of future financial security, marital matches must be made.

Fortunately for both marriageable Dashwoods, prospects soon appear in the persons of Fanny’s brother Edward (Josh Odsess-Rubin), whose friendship with Elinor might well lead to wedding bells, and Mr. Willoughby (Preston Butler III), the dashing stranger who comes to an injured rain-drenched Marianne’s rescue one stormy night. And should things not work out between Elinor and Edward, there’s always the somewhat more seasoned Colonel Brandon (Dileep Rao) waiting patiently for the elder Miss Dashwood to pay him romantic heed.

It should come as no surprise to any Jane Austen fan that obstacles will be popping up along the road to wedded bliss, a previously unmentioned engagement and rumors of an unforgivable past indiscretion among them, all of which add up to close to three hours of Austenland magic at South Coast Rep, adeptly adapted for the stage by Jessica Swale.

 Not only does director Casey Stangl helm Sense And Sensibility with effervescence and verve; by assigning many of Austen’s iconic roles to actors of color, she makes it clear that “color-blind casting” doesn’t mean casting without regard to an actor’s race but making deliberately diverse choices that ask the audience to be color-blind, just one of many reasons South Coast Rep’s Sense And Sensibility deserves to be seen.

 Ward’s exquisite Elinor, ruled by practicality and common sense, and Mozo’s marvelous Marianne, led by her passions and her heart, are everything a Sense And Sensibility lover could hope for, while Odsess-Rubin’s awkward-nerdy-cute delight of an Edward, Butler’s rascally charmer of a Willoughby, and Rao’s quietly suffering mensch of a Colonel Brandon prove equally swoon-worthy.

 A sensational Marcks is as manipulatively malevolent as Fanny Dashwood as her Mrs. Jenning is gossipy and gregarious, and SoCal treasure Doukas delivers three distinct performance gems—as the girls’ loving, devoted mother, as ditzy chatterbox Charlotte Palmer, and as the mysterious Miss Grey.

Additional stellar featured work by a bubbly Rachel Chany (Lucy Steel), a droll Joel Gelman (Thomas, Mr. Palmer), a vivacious Jung, and and dynamic Orduña adds up to a pitch-perfect Jane Austen cast unlike any you’ve seen before.

 Scenic designer François-Pierre Couture’s expansive set, at first glance nothing more than several angular paneled walls, reveals multiple wonders throughout, particularly when lit by Anne E. McMills with a major assist from David Murakami’s gorgeous projections, in particular a Devonshire countryside on sheer muslin drapes that is a pastoral stunner.

 Maggie Morgan costumes each character to early 1800s Austen perfection as Martin Carrillo’s jaunty original music adds magic to the designer’s scene-setting soundscape, with Kitty McNamee’s choreography contributing to the Regency charm.

Kathryn Wilson is assistant director. Kimberly Colburn is dramaturg. Joshua Marchesi is production manager. Bree Sherry is stage manager and Kathryn Davies is assistant stage manager. Doukas doubles as dialect coach. Ken Merckx is fight choreographer. Casting is by Joanne DeNaut, CSA.

 Having already seen one Oscar-winning big-screen adaptation, an equally captivating BBC mini-series, and Paul Gordon’s Broadway-ready musical version at the Old Globe a couple years back, no one could have been more primed for more Jane Austen enchantment than this reviewer. South Coast Repertory’s Sense And Sensibility is a beguiling, bewitching, multi-hued charmer from start to finish.

South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.
www.scr.org

–Steven Stanley
September 18, 2018
Photos: Jordan Kubat/SCR

Tags: Jane Austen, Jessica Swale, Orange County Theater Review, South Coast Repertory