Sense and Sensibility, Pitlochry review - 'barely a dry eye in the house'
Sense And Sensibility, Pitlochry Festival Theatre ****
Grease, Playhouse, Edinburgh ****
For all the outward gentility of the scene she depicts, Jane Austen lived in what could be harsh economic times, for women of a certain social status. Forbidden to work for money on pain of social rejection and a complete loss of respectability (Jane Austen herself strove for years to disguise her status as a published author), they depended entirely on the vagaries of inheritance or marriage for the means to live; and the tradition of concentrating wealth on the eldest male heir meant that whole families of girls could be left destitute, on the death of their fathers.
Yet even in this tough and transactional context, Jane Austen’s central theme was always the quest for true love, in its various forms; and nowhere in her writing is that quest more passionate than in her first published novel, Sense And Sensibility, now staged by Pitlochry Festival Theatre, with co-producers OVO Theatre of St Albans, in a new version by Frances Poet that highlights both the economic situation of the leading characters – the two Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne – and the timeless search for love that will save them not only from poverty, but from heartbreak and loneliness.
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Hide AdIn Adam Nichols's beautiful light-touch production, the essential familiarity of that search is emphasised by having the eight-strong cast sing their way through a series of gentle choral versions of 21st century hits about love and loss, from Boston Manor’s Halo to Sophie Ellis Bextor’s Murder On The Dancefloor; as they tell the story of how the two sisters – romantic and impulsive Marianne, and outwardly sensible but inwardly deeply loving Elinor – survive the early 19th century social badlands of greed, injustice and exploitation, to find a true love match, for each of them.
Kirsty Findlay and Lola Aluko deliver a gorgeous, witty pair of performances as Elinor and Marianne, with barely a dry eye in the house as Elinor begs her gravely ill sister to stay alive, and live out a happy old maid’s life with her. And there is fine support from Connor Going as Elinor’s love Edward Ferrers, and Luke Wilson as the heartbreaker Willoughby; in a production that soothes the soul both through its own generous spirit, and through Austen’s brilliant, deeply-founded conviction that true hearts will find one another, even in the worst of times.
The quest for true love is also the key theme of Grease, the Chicago-born 1970s musical that, in 1978, became a global smash hit in the film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. Set in the autumn of 1959, the show tells the story of young lovers Danny and Sandy, who after a tender summer romance on the beach, find themselves unexpectedly in the same school class. The kids at Rydell High are tough, though; and Sandy soon finds that Danny can no longer be seen to care for a “good girl” like her, with no experience of sex, drink and cigarettes.
As the world knows, Danny and Sandy eventually find their way back to one another through a terrific series of bubblegum hits, from Summer Nights to the iconic You’re The One That I Want. And if the current UK touring production is a little rough around the edges – unreliable sound balance here, hard-to-catch dialogue there – in the end, in Nikolai Foster’s production, there’s no resisting the power of the music and of Arlene Phillips’s exhilarating choreography; or the sheer energy and spirit of a gorgeous young cast, led by a lovely Hope Dawe as Sandy, and gallant understudy Ben Middleton, stepping up with a fine voice and lovely moves to play Danny Zuko, the boy from the wrong side of the tracks who finally wins the girl of his dreams.
Sense and Sensibility is in repertoire at Pitlochry Festival Theatre until 27 September; Grease is at the Playhouse, Edinburgh, until 29 June, and at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, 2-6 July.