by CHRISTINE SARKES Aethem Theatre Company’s world premiere adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, June 15-18, is a superbly acted delight. The company’s founding member Kayla Hambek has accomplished a nearly herculean task in adapting the book to stage given that much of Austen’s exposition is the protagonist’s inner monologue. Hambek cleverly uses Anne Elliot’s (Audrey…
by CHRISTINE SARKES I’m writing this review as an unabashed Jane Austen fan and addressing it to the likewise. Anyone else is a mystery to me and I wouldn’t know where to begin. Janeites/Austenites will love the Guthrie Theater and Kate Hamill’s reverent, yet lightly modernized adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. With spot-on lead performances, exceptional ensemble…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE Director Joe Dowling and the entire cast and crew of the Guthrie Theater’s Pride and Prejudice can surely be proud of their stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s beloved novel, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year. The play is hugely entertaining, unexpectedly hilarious–while remaining true to the novel’s more thoughtful themes–and can…
by CHRISTINE SARKES SASSEVILLE For Jane Austen fans and readers of her romantic novel, Emma, the central challenge is to overcome your distaste for Emma’s patronizing, meddling matchmaking in order to understand the onerous class distinctions that characterized everyday interactions between neighbors, family members and friends in the early 1800s. For local playwrights, Savage Umbrella’s Laura Leffler-McCabe and…
