New Jane Austen adaptation at the Watermill

Published: 15 March 2014
Reporter: Sheila Connor

Sense and Sensibility Credit: Michael Wharley

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."

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