Whilst the nineteenth century yielded few great plays it certainly provided a feast of fine novelists and Charlotte Bronte’s JANE EYRE has remained a firm favourite down the generations.This enterprising regional venue commissioned her to tell the story over two evenings, allowing her to really delve into all the nooks and crannies of the long, dense book and present them to audiences in her trade mark physical theatre style.
The result was a big hit in the West Country and it’s now had a slight trim and been condensed into one evening, lasting three and a half hours, for a revival at London’s National Theatre.
Jane’s story has all the ingredients of a meaty pot-boiler and it dips into many of the favoured literary conventions of the time it was written. Like many heroes and heroines of 19th century literature she’s orphaned, treated cruelly by relations and sent to suffer at an equally cruel school. Never the less she manages to rise above injustice to become a governess and bag a rich, swarthy husband, thanks to her inherent goodness and morality.
But meanwhile something nasty is lurking in the attic which must be overcome before the lovers can enjoy a happy ending!
The woman next to me was in floods of tears but I must confess I wasn’t quite as engaged. Firstly because I’ve always struggled to like the humourless Jane or her brute of a lover, the enigmatic, rough and ready Mr Rochester but this is Bronte’s doing and no fault of the production.
It’s a very fashionable, sparse staging with just a series of ramps and platforms surrounded by a white curtain, not unlike a set you’d see for a fringe show but it’s perfect for physical theatre conventions when, typically, a story is told by a small cast portraying all the characters with minimal costumes, augmented by clever actor physicality, a few props and the power of the unadorned text.
A rewarding, if long evening, trendily staged, celebrating one of the most popular novels of female empowerment ever written
If you’re familiar with this kind of theatre the production almost serves as a check list of the usual components – billowing cloth, ladders, dresses, coat hangers, bare light bulbs and an on stage band, augmented here with recorded music, contributing period and contemporary songs that aptly reference the insanity of love. We’ve seen the whole bag of tricks so many, many times before but they may surprise and delight you if you’re not a regular theatre goer.
The many parts are unevenly allocated amongst the cast, one poor actor only gets to play Mr Rochester’s dog (which he does very well) and a handful of secondary characters whilst, for no apparent reason, Laura Elphinstone is given all the plum supporting roles. Madeleine Worrall is suitably self righteous in the title role and Felix Hayes is her engagingly gruff and earthy lover.
A rewarding, if long evening, trendily staged, celebrating one of the most popular novels of female empowerment ever written.
The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of the musical MATILDA is now a firm family favourite in the West End so we sent mother and daughter, Nicky and Rosie Chambers (aged 8) to check it out and report back with their reviews.