Mark Healy's faithful yet inventive adaptations of Jane Austen's treasured novels are terrifically actable and readable. This edition features Production Notes, making it easily stageable too.

When John Dashwood and his snobbish wife Fanny inherit his father's estate, his stepmother, along with his half-sisters, are forced to leave their home and live on a reduced income. Elinor bears the move with her usual stoicism, even though it cuts short her growing friendship with Fanny's brother, Edward Ferrars, while Marianne's grief seemingly knows no bounds.

Their new life, from the Devonshire countryside to London's high society - peopled by their eccentric host Sir John Middleton, the brooding Colonel Brandon, the dashing Willoughby and the simpering Lucy Steele - is set to test the sisters' sense and sensibilities to the limit.

This adaptation of Sense and Sensibility was first staged at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter, in 2000.

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'Healy emphasises subtlety in the characters, rather than caricaturing them for easy laughs'