Bedlam’s 2016 “Sense and Sensibility” was fresh, buoyant, engaging, and richly authentic. Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s text was transformative theatre, groundbreaking theatre, immersive theatre, theatre not to be missed. Eric Tucker’s sparse and inventive staging exposed the pure joy of Jane Austen’s popular text.

Jane Austen’s goal as a novelist was never to obfuscate; rather, her purpose was to elucidate the fissures and fractures in society’s infrastructure. The novelist used humor and happenstance effectively. She employed rich tropes to enrich and embolden her text, and never to distract her purpose, which in the case of “Persuasion,” was to celebrate second chances at love and relationship and the importance of knowing when to pursue those relationships by relying on one’s own intuition and skill set.

Unfortunately, and sadly, this Bedlam “Persuasion” adaptation by Sarah Rose Kearns lacks the clarity and authenticity of the original text. And, atypically, Erik Tucker’s direction manages to further muddy Ms. Kearns’s text which on its own is less than lucid. The well-though-out use of set design and properties of “Sense and Sensibility” are here replaced by more standard cross-dressing and obvious sketches of humor.

“Persuasion” follows Anne Elliot’s (an all-to-often easily persuaded but resolute Arielle Yoder) journey from persuaded by Lady Russell (a statuesque and assertive Annabel Capper) not to submit to Captain Wentworth’s (an endearing yet quirky Rajesh Bose) to persuasive in Bedlam’s rollercoaster-ride through Jane Austen’s final novel. The entire cast is exceptional, and each member strives to give her or his character authenticity and believability in the context of Austen’s work and Kearns’s adaptation. But the vase scraping (rain), teacup rattling (dinnertime), chirping and superb piano-playing (kudos to Yonaton Gebeyehu) cannot elevate “Persuasion” to Bedlam’s usual standards of excellence and creative genius.

It isn’t until the end of the play that the Bedlam team really engages with the audience with an emotion-laden mix of music and text that leaves the audience wishing the remainder of the performance had been as persuasive.

Although “Persuasion” is disappointing, Bedlam will surely regroup and once again take its audiences to unusual places within the vicissitudes of the human experience.