Jane Austen On Stage? Bedlam Ensues!

Others — led of course by the New York Times — have acclaimed Bedlam as a theatrical company of exceptional quality. See their latest productions of Chekhov’s The Seagull and a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility done in repertory and you’ll immediately know why. They’re a strong ensemble with versatile actors and a keen intelligence devoted to the pure theater extolled by Cheek By Jowl and others right up the recent Peter and The Starcatcher. It’s theater that exults in the marriage of their talents and your imagination to create something special that needs no elaborate sets or frippery. The Chekhov is good (no small feat). The Austen is delightful and near masterful. And I will be certain to see whatever they do next. You know the stories. In The Seagull, a famed actress heads to the country for a rest, only to have her petulant son Konstantin throw a fit when she giggles at his “play” and her lover — a writer who, she believes, should be thrilled to have her — grows besotted with a much younger ingenue. Meanwhile, the son is the object of affection for Masha, a woman he cannot see while she in turn is stalked by an obdurately dull school teacher named Medvedenko who makes less than $2000 a year and has no source of conversation other than the injustice of such a thing. It does not end well.