About the Play:

Sense and Sensibility is a full-length dramatic comedy adapted for the stage by Kate Hamill, based on the beloved novel by Jane Austen. This refreshing, light-hearted romp through the English countryside tells the story of the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, as they cope with changing social circumstances and wistful longings for love. Told with quick, tight structuring and a chorus of gossips, Sense and Sensibility is inventive and full of comic vitality.

Sense and Sensibility is fresh, comic adaptation of Jane Austen's romance novel. The story follows the fortunes (and misfortunes) of the Dashwood sisters – level-headed Elinor and passionate, impetuous Marianne – after their father's sudden death leaves them financially destitute and tossed into a world swirling with the social pressures of class, money, and reputation. Mix in a few dashing love interests and a gaggle of gossipy socialites for an energetic romp through the 18th-century England. Sense and Sensibility examines our reactions, both reasonable and ridiculous, to societal pressures. When reputation is everything, how do you follow your heart? With a fresh female voice, the play is full of humour, emotional depth, and bold theatricality that will delight Austen fans and novices alike.

Kate Hamill's first full-length play, Sense and Sensibility premiered in 2014 in a short run production by New York City's Bedlam Theater Company at the Sheen Center in Manhattan. It was a critical and box-office hit, and the production was remounted off-Broadway in January 2016 and was extended in that run three times. Since then the play had regional premieres at professional theatres across the US and has been mounted by high schools, colleges, and community theatres.

Cast: 9 female, 8 male (alternate casting 4 female, 3 male with doubling)

What people say:

"…an unconditional delight… invigorating… a bouncy, jaunty take on Austen… remains remarkably true to the values and priorities of its source. The classic Austen preoccupations with real estate, income, class, reputation and equilibrium in life are all rendered brightly and legibly here." — New York Times

"…so full of galloping comic vitality as to suggest a bunch of stupendously clever kids playing dress-up in the nursery. It's by far the smartest Jane Austen adaptation to come along since Amy Heckerling's Clueless, and at least as much fun." — Wall Street Journal

"Perhaps the greatest stage adaptation of this novel in history." — Huffington Post

"…inventive, faithful, clever and hilarious. Kate Hamill's marvelous play is one of the finest stage adaptations of a literary classic. Our Jane would have expressed her approval." — TheaterScene.net

"…rowdy, exuberant…thoroughly modern yet not at all contemporized. Kate Hamill's felicitous adaptation gives us ageless emotions, couched in the mores and locutions of the past, yet timeless in their arduously suppressed intensity." — Time Out New York

About the Playwright:

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was an English novelist whose penchant for witty social commentary, celebrated romantic plots, and feminine perspective make her one of the most celebrated authors in British literature. Her novels deal primarily with the social lives of English landed gentry, especially the expectations of and about women, and the necessity of securing a good marriage. Although Austen herself never married, novels like Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice and Emma are considered classics of the early nineteenth century romantic genre and are still widely read today.

Kate Hamill is an American actress and playwright. As playwright, she is known for her innovative, contemporary adaptations of classic novels for the stage, including Sense and Sensibility (in which she originated the role of Marianne).