Venue (23): Pleasance Dome
Category: Theatre
Times: 1:40pm
Dates: July 30-31, Aug1-25, not 12
Stars: ***
Reviewed by Mary Woodward
A group of writers and actors in Regency costume improvise a novel in the style of Jane Austen, using a title suggested by an audience member.
I was expecting great things from this show, and I have to confess I was disappointed. The potential was there: a clever title – Senseless Sensitivity offered scope for wit and invention.
The novel had its opening scene on a beach in Margate in 1814. Two young gentlemen bemoaned the weather: one was extremely sensitive to sunlight. He was also still suffering from a broken heart, the object of his affections having unaccountably rejected his love eighteen months previously. There was a tea shop, in which, of course, he encountered his lost love partaking of refreshment with her sister. And so the plot tried to develop: much Earl Grey was consumed, parasols were offered for sale, an icy young woman endeavoured to bully our hero into beggaring himself paying for their stupendous wedding, and there were a number of comic servants
The audience thought it was wonderful, and laughed, clapped and cheered throughout. I felt that the cast were loving their own performance rather too much: they were having so much fun, and thinking themselves so clever, they forgot that the audience has not paid to see an amdram improv show. There was far too much corpseing, and an unfortunate tendency to forget characters names either that or the plot was even more confusing than I thought. I appreciated their violinists contribution to mood and atmosphere. Overall, there were some excellent moments, and a lot of humour that worked: the dialogue contained much that was Austen, but also a lot of NAusten
