Review Roundup: Read the Reviews for Bedlam's PERSUASION; What Did the Critics Think?

BEDLAM's PERSUASION, a new play by Sarah Rose Kearns adapted from the novel by Jane Austen and directed by Eric Tucker, opened on Tuesday, September 28, 2021.

The cast features Rajesh Bose, Annabel Capper, Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy, Yonatan Gebeyehu, Carolin Grogan, Claire Hsu, Sarah Rose Kearns, Randolph Curtis Rand, Nandita Shenoy, Jamie Smithson, Arielle Yoder.

In the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, a shy English spinster seeks to win back the love of the man she jilted eight years before. Jane Austen's last and most romantic novel, PERSUASION first appeared in print in 1818, and is a meditation on love and loss, and what is constant in a changing world.

Tickets are now on sale for BEDLAM's production of PERSUASION at www.bedlam.org (833-4BEDLAM). Tickets range from $30 - $90, and the playing schedule is as follows: Tuesday through Saturday at 7pm, Saturday and Sunday at 2pm.

Let's see what the critics are saying...

---

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: If I didn't react to "Persuasion" as enthusiastically as to their previous productions, it's still Bedlam, and that means beauty, humor and precision in the design, and much clever and enlivening stage business. At times, while a scene plays out upstage, members of the cast stand at the lip of the stage and create sound effects - singing birds, a rain storm. There's puckish staging involving a music box. A performer sprays water in the face of a character who is coming in from the rain. There is the comic interlude of Lady Dalrymple, portrayed in drag by Yonatan Gebeyehu (one of his five roles in the play) - although the mirthful reaction of his cast mates clued me into the possibility that not everything he did was planned; it may have been an accident that the character tumbled down and lost her white wig. What was clearly planned were the lovely singing, lively piano playing, decorous dancing.

Gillian Russo, New York Theatre Guide: The production by Bedlam, which presented Austen's Sense and Sensibility in 2017, emphasizes that there's nothing endearing about your family, in this case the Elliots and their in-laws the Musgroves, judging your every romantic prospect and social interaction. Awkwardness is the dominant feeling onstage, as no one has any privacy and nothing better to do than observe each other making faux pas while vainly hoping no one sees their own. The result is a hilarious and relatable adaptation for those of us nervously readjusting back to in-person socializing.

Naveen Kumar, TimeOut NY: Austen's Persuasion lives especially close to its heroine's point of view, so it makes sense that Capper's Anne often feels like the only fully formed person on stage. With the exception of Wentworth (a quiet, brooding type), most of the others in her orbit read as caricatures. The dizzying melee that carries Anne right back to where she started can be amusing, but it doesn't always sweep us up.

To post a comment, you must register and login.