The Watermill at Newbury's next production is Jane Austen's classic Sense and Sensibility from Thursday 3 April 2014 in a brand new adaptation by Jessica Swale.
Swale is a theatre director, playwright and co-founder of Red Handed Theatre Company who made her directorial debut at Shakespeare's Globe in 2010 with Nell Leyshon's Bedlam, the first play by a female playwright ever to be staged at the venue.
Swale said, "I've loved Austen since picking up a copy of Pride and Prejudice as a teenager.
"The BBC was partly responsible; Colin Firth's now infamous lake dip left us all drenched, hooked and wondering how a nineteenth century woman could be so honest and insightful about relationships when most women of her time were hidden away.
"The fact that Austen was such a success is testament to her ability to draw real life so convincingly in words, and the job of adapting it for stage has been both a thrill and and intimidating process."