Barter Theatre

Event Guide

Table of Contents

Director's Note

Cast List

Collaborators

Production Crew

Cast Biographies

Collaborator Biographies

Sponsors

Production Credits

Sense and Sensibility

June 17th - August 19th on Barter's Gilliam Stage

Director's Note

Sense and Sensibility is my favorite of Jane Austen’s creations. She built the Dashwood sisters with such depth and personality that it’s impossible not to hope for them. Elinor Dashwood, the proverbial ‘sense’ of the story, holds her family together through her adherence to the rules of society and her ability to master her emotions. Marianne, the ‘sensibility,’ feels everything so deeply that her passion carries the family, and the story, forward in adventure. But here is where Austen’s hand tips—to find their true happiness, each sister must find the other side of themselves—the sense or sensibility they didn’t have before. Elinor allows her emotions to surface; Marianne finds joy in the peace of stability.

It sounds like a simple plot device, but it is so much more. As you turn the story over, you find more characters and moments that are enriched by discovering that the opposite of what they believed is also true. It’s an acting exercise I particularly like, to have a character explore the opposite of what they were just playing. It deepens the work and brings a richness and three dimensionality to the characters.

I believe the same is true in the ‘real world.’ Since the country reopened after pandemic shutdowns, people talk every day about their search for balance in their lives. We can feel that something in us is amiss… lopsided. It has been one of the great joys of this play to rediscover that, like the Dashwood sisters, we will find ourselves through the opposite of what we have been doing. If we have clung to our logic, we might need to listen to our heart more. And vice versa. If we are leaning into our work, perhaps we need some play. And vice versa. We are creatures of beautiful paradox. We can hold both at once: our care for ourselves and our care for others, our freedom and our responsibility, our stillness and our wanderlust, and on and on and on. Come with us as the Dashwoods find that they, and we, hold multitudes.

- Katy Brown, Director of Sense & Sensibility