This was my first visit to Waukesha Civic Theatre. And, no, they are not a new theater, they’ve been providing quality theater in Waukesha since 1957. And it was something of a homecoming for me since I grew up in Pewaukee in the 1950s and 1960s because WCT is located in the Pix movie theater on Main Street in downtown Waukesha. So I saw a few pictures there as a child and later in my teen age dating years. That little bit of coincidence added a little warm feeling for a brisk February afternoon.
So, what is my first encounter with WCT? Kate Hamill’s unique adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. It isn’t the drama that you might expect but: Is it a Comedy of Errors? A Comedy of Manners? A Comedy of 18th Century Society? Or all of the above? I vote for that latter. And yes it is a comedy here, but not the laugh out loud comedy we often experience in our contemporary era. No, this is on the lighter side…the kind of humor that makes you peek at your neighbor what was that? Or roll your eyes in a dramatic, I get it, fashion. Or maybe a titter behind the palm of your hand quickly raised to your face. But it is still a serious play and stays true to the events in Austen’s original novel. But sometimes the acting is just a wee bit exaggerated and over the top…much to the audience’s and my delight.
Oh, Henry Dashwood, how little we knew ye. Henry Dashwood dies within the first few minutes of the play. And his passing is the very pivot point that launches all of the stories and sub stories that co-directors Ashley Levells-Riemer and Patrice L Hood are about to tell in a fast moving series of vignettes, black outs, and quick set changes. Henry left behind a wife, three daughters, and an adult son from a previous marriage. And because of the vagaries of 18th Century law, only the son could inherit Henry’s estate. So his son John, promises to support his step-mother and half-sisters from his inheritance. So we are off!
John Dashwood is played by Mark Thompson who establishes John as an earnest and resolute man determined to respect his fathers wishes. Unfortunately he has married into wealth. Thompson’s John is obviously enamored of his wife, Fanny, but is clearly in fear of her as well. But Amy Wickland’s Fanny is clearly a shrew and a manipulator and has John wrapped around her finger. And after John proposes a fair financial support for the four women, Fanny coyly and coldly and openly, negotiates the terms down to just paying for their moving fees as they are evicted from their home. Fortunately they are able to move to a cottage on the estate of another relative and are also invited to ‘visit’ a number of other notables and relatives.
I am not going to go into too many details of the story. All of you Austen fans know this one by heart and for the rest of us, let’s not spoil the surprise. But you will certainly glean any number of details as I outline some of the characters in the play and the characters who play them.
Mack Bates certainly has a presence on stage as he plays Sir John Middleton with a certain sense of pomp and a certain sense of dignity, all supported by an awe inspiring sense of whimsy underneath. Such fun and Bates is obviously an audience favorite. And our youngest Miss Dashwood is played by Makayla Lloyd. Lloyd provides a saucy teenager who is curious, bored, overwrought, or just plain done with the goings on of the adults…just like you’d expect a teenager to behave. Angie Rodenkirch’s Mrs. Dashwood is a common sense go with the flow mother who just wants stability and the best for her daughters.
And the other two Miss Dashwood? Elinor is the eldest and she is played by Del Lovejoy. Lovejoy portrays a deep thinking rather stoic and quietly conservative young adult. Despite not having much more real world experience than many of the other young people, she seems to invite confidentialities and questions of advice. At times she is in deep pain but no one but Elinor knows it and Lovejoy maybe signals that a bit in her manner but never in her voice. And of course Marianne, the middle Dashwood. Attractive, outgoing, and interested in novels and theater, Amelie Davis-Quiroz plays her to a tee. Davis-Quiroz catches all of the excitement and all of the anguish involved in Marianne’s character as she is the magnet that draws in all of the eligible men.
And the suitors? Colonel Brandon is an older man…probably a bit out of the ordinary for what most would consider an appropriate suitor for Marianne. Stefan Kent’s Brandon is a seasoned military man who is kind and never overbearing. He sees what needs to be done and takes care of it without asking. Kent’s portrayal brings a real person to life, unlike many of the other characters who are a bit ‘over the top’ (and I do mean that in a delightful way). And Willoughby: he finds Marianne with a sprained ankle and carries her home and soon carries her heart. Noah Merz gives us a very worldly Willoughby but also exhibits his rather foppish demeanor. That very practiced doffing and donning of his top hat eliciting any number of titters and snickers from the audience. And Edward Ferrars is our last gentleman, played by Tyler Glor. Ferrars is a nervous nelly and shivers when reading aloud and often stutters when speaking. Glor’s management of these social stigmas is wondrous and explicit and again elicits responses from the audience. He plays them to the hilt. His early scenes are reading with Marianne so I was slow catching on that there was a growing connection between Ferrars and Elinor.
One other pair of characters help push Sense and Sensibility from a drama to a comedy…and they are the Steele Sisters, Anne and Lucy. Laura Kloser is Anne and Caitlyn Nettesheim is Lucy. They play well together. The sisters are silly, loud, and often obnoxious…ne’er do wells?? Well at least on the surface but they are a noisy counterpoint to much of the more ‘serious’ characters we’ve encountered. But Kloser and Nettesheim catch their sly and devious sides too when they don’t have a larger audience.
My guesstimation is the play runs about two hours plus a fifteen minute intermission.
Sense and Sensibility runs from now through February 22nd, 2026 at the Margaret Brate Bryant Civic Theatre, 264 West Main Street in downtown Waukesha.
More information tickets can be found here.
Extra credit reading: The Playbill!
