Sense and Sen­si­bil­ity Com­ing to the Bethel Stage

MISHAWAKA—Bethel’s The­atre De­part­ment pre­sents “Sense & Sen­si­bil­ity” writ­ten by Kate Hamill, play­fully adapted from the novel by Jane Austen. Per­for­mances of the show will run Nov. 14, 15, and 16 at 7:30 p.m., with a mati­nee on Nov. 16 at 1 p.m., in the Ever­est-Rohrer Au­di­to­rium on Bethel’s cam­pus. 

The story is set in late 18th-cen­tury Eng­land and fol­lows the for­tunes and mis­for­tunes of the Dash­wood sis­ters, the prac­ti­cal Eli­nor and the ro­man­tic Mar­i­anne, af­ter their fa­ther’s sud­den death leaves them fi­nan­cially des­ti­tute and so­cially vul­ner­a­ble.  

Deb Swer­man, ad­junct pro­fes­sor of the­atre, is di­rect­ing the play. 

“They end up mov­ing out of the big man­sion house and liv­ing in a cot­tage that was given to them by a cousin that they’d never met but took pity on them,” said Swer­man. “They’re just try­ing to find their way in this new world of theirs, which in­cludes try­ing to find love.” 

One of the most chal­leng­ing as­pects of the play is the num­ber of scene changes and the ra­pid­ity with which they take place. 

“The play takes place in sev­eral dif­fer­ent lo­ca­tions,” said Swer­man. “They start out at one big house, and they move to an­other big house, and then they have the cot­tage, and at one point they go to Lon­don... it’s crazy.” 

An­other unique as­pect is that the play is nar­rated and even, to a cer­tain ex­tent, con­trolled by “the gos­sips.” 

“The gos­sips move the ac­tion,” said Swer­man. “They’re al­ways watch­ing, ei­ther through the cur­tains, or through the win­dow, they’re just al­ways there watch­ing, and then they shift the scenery... at some points they’ll ac­tu­ally come on and pick an ac­tor up and move them to an­other place... it’s very un­con­ven­tional.” 

Swer­man also loves the unity among the cast. 

“The two ladies that play Eli­nor and Mar­i­anne are just amaz­ing,” said Swer­man. “Their re­la­tion­ship to­gether will just make you laugh one sec­ond and crack you in two the next; they’re re­ally close to­gether, and they’ve built that re­la­tion­ship through­out re­hearsals.” 

Hope Nofziger is play­ing Eli­nor Dash­wood and has greatly en­joyed de­vel­op­ing that re­la­tion­ship as well; she hopes that peo­ple will come out to reap the ben­e­fits of every­one’s hard work.  

“I am very ex­cited to be a part of a story that is so well known,” said Nofziger, “and to bring this char­ac­ter to life again.” 

Tick­ets are $13 for stu­dents and se­niors, $15 for adults and $10 for chil­dren 12 and un­der. Pur­chase tick­ets in the ticket of­fice, on­line at Tick­ets.BethelU­ni­ver­sity.edu or by call­ing (574) 807–7080.