SOME things just don't change, according to actor and writer Mark Healy, and that is one of the things which makes his adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility work.

The Chawton novelist's convoluted tale of love, rejection and social scandal comes to Basingstoke's Haymarket Theatre next Tuesday (May 23) and focuses on topics still very close to society's heart 200 years after it was written.

"Jane Austen was obsessed with love and money," he said, "and today we are still obsessed with love and money so I think people can relate to her so much. I think that is why she has remained so popular today."

Indeed, there has been a huge resurgence of interest in Austen's work during the last 10 years or so, with numerous theatre, television and film productions of her novels and this is not Mark's first experience of adapting her work for the stage.

He has been commissioned by the same theatre company, the Northcott Theatre Exeter company, before to adapt Persuasion.

But although the often complex novels of the 19th Century might appear difficult to adapt for the stage, Mark said Austen's work lends itself well to theatre.

He said: "She was a fantastic dialogue writer, which helps me as a writer very much and, working with the actors, we were able to change parts of the play as we worked on it.

"I also think she is a very moral writer, like all the great 19th Cebtury writers, and we don't have that so much today but I think a lot of people can relate to the situation of Willoughby and Marianne in Sense and Sensibility.

"In that way, it is not a costume drama because they were written as contemporary observations of our society. Because they are such minute and detailed observations, we can still gain a lot from that.

"I think Jane Austen was a genius and we certainly don't have many of those today."

Mark wanted to be involved in theatre from the age of 12, although he said there was no specific moment that made up his mind. He went to university in Reading and then to drama school in Cardiff.

He started off acting, with credits including Orsino in Twelfth Night at the Haymarket, D'Arcy in Pride and Prejudice and a world tour of The Comedy of Errors with the RSC, and is playing dashing young lover John Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility.

His writing career has really kick-started during the last couple of years with his commissions from the Northcott company while his adaptation of John Fowles' The Collector could be heading for the West End next year.

"That was much more like something I would write," he said, "It was easier to adapt than the 19th Century novels in a way because it is just two actors and it is all in the same place.

"I also have a good relationship with the original author John Fowles and we were very lucky to be picked up for the West End.

"I love doing both writing and acting - they are basically both the same thing, telling stories."

He is currently working on a screenplay of the life of pre-Raphaelite painter Gabriel Rossetti called Dante's Dream.

He has been asked to write it for the stage but is hoping that he will be able to find someone interested in making it into a film.

But for the moment, he is concentrating on the tour of Sense and Sensibility, currently in Coventry.

Some things don't change and, as Mark said, the topics of love and money are still among the most important to people today. "It is good, "he said, "to be in something that is selling."

Andy Bothwell.

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