Gabriela Jezierska (Marianne) and Nicholas Thompson (Willoughby) Photo: Jenny Baklinski
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Saturday evening’s performance of Sense and Sensibility was an excellent adaptation of Jane Austen’s work, wonderfully cast & performed by The Don Bosco Drama Club. With very sparse staging the play relied on the cast’s ability to create in the audience’s mind the setting for the time period. This was achieved with strong acting, great period costumes and a top notch technical and stage crew who swiftly changed props between perfectly timed curtain changes.
The Dashwood sisters, Marianne, Elinor, and Margaret, were played by Gabriela Jezierska, MaryJane Vanderhulst, and Margaret Garcia-Villasenor. Early on in the performance, they establish the character personalities that are so crucial to the play through strong delivery of their lines, well choreographed facial expressions and body language. The audience was quickly drawn into Elinor’s quiet and thoughtful personality, polar opposite to Marianne’s boldly impassioned zest for life. We delighted in Margaret’s youthful exuberance and witty remarks sometimes at the expense of the long suffering Mrs. Dashwood very well performed by Marusha Patrick.
Male leads in the play, Simon Hughes as Colonel Brandon, Nicholas Thompson as John Willoughby, and Joseph Grondin as Edward Ferrars, gave equally strong performances. As testimony to this, the duel between Colonel Brandon and John Willoughby drew cheers from the audience. Hughes did a splendid job shifting his character Colonel Brandon from shy and nervous to shouting with condemnation over Willoughby’s character.
The audience was clearly entertained by nosey, matchmaking Mrs. Jennings played by Ria Vandenberg. They roared with laughter at her antics and interactions with other equally entertaining characters. Fanny and John Dashwood were played by Sarah Smith and Daniel Shramm, and Charlotte and Thomas Palmer played by Rebecca Boskill and Yvan Choly. The flirtatious Lucy Steele was wonderfully played by Gabriele Berger.
A testament to the play’s audience engagement was our ability to endure extremely uncomfortable seating rather than miss a minute of the play to get up to relieve cramped legs and sore bottoms, the only detractor to the evening.
Congratulations to the cast and crew and to Director Jenny Baklinski (shown here following final performance) on delivering such a strong, professional and polished performance. We are fortunate to have this talent in our midst. I very much look forward to next year’s production by The Don Bosco Drama Club.
