Trailer here:
A wonderful and gripping experience. A superb example of how to adapt a book for the stage that, as far as my recollection of the book goes, remained almost wholly true to its spirit and yet made it a totally uniquely theatrical experience.
the set was simple but wonderfully versatile - a series of varied-height platforms, ladders, steps and ramps. which became whatever and wherever we needed to be -and with the actors acting as holders of props or lights, or sound effect sources - and, magically, a stagecoach (see trailer to see what I mean). And Pilot the dog definitely deserves mention. Watch it and see! The company was very small - 7 in all but only 5 if you exclude Jane and Mr Rochester but members of the band had a few lines - but did every role superbly. On the back and side were white drapes which occasionally were suffused with vivid colour - but very sparingly, so that when it happened it had great impact. Rochester’s residence was dark and gloomy and there was a marvellous effect which showed Jane walking down long dark corridors which was achieved simply by having actors holding a light and moving ahead of Jane. The other actors were also, occasionally used to articulate inner thoughts which worked well - not least because it was a sparingly-used device
Music played a very important part in the production with a small live group back and centre stage. Most of the music was original in a wide variety of styles, and sometimes was just evocative soundscape - and at least one stomp-style number - although occasionally a known song was used, most powerfully with Bertha, the ‘mad wife’ - whom we heard only in song as a lovely and powerful idea to convey her separation from normal reality - when she sang Mad About the Boy re her marriage to Rochester. She was made a marvellously sympathetic character - not least as we saw very little of her - although at the very end I was not convinced by the song she sang implying that she and Jane were cut from the same cloth. I suppose there are/were certain similarities but it seemed rather simplistic the way done here.
This has been hailed as a very ‘feminist’ take on the text but I did not have the sense at all that this was being imposed on the work. A key image used (from the book I am sure) was that of a bird trying to get free from its cage and this sense of Jane wanting more from the confined of her life was marvellously conveyed - on two occasions in particular. One where she was teaching and periodically broke off to look out of the window at the (unseen) wider world. This was staged with actors simple holding up a simple wooden window frame to her face. This idea was used again when, at Thornfield, four frames were flung aside and Jane stared ecstatically out while a long piece of gauze was fluttered over her head giving the sense of the wonder and power of nature and other opportunities beyond four confining walls.
Costumes were also used and the transformation of Jane from girl to woman was very evocatively shown by her being dressed in layers of confining clothes (and the inevitable corset), and her flowing hair put up and controlled.
The performances were wonderful and the two leads remarkable - the great confrontation between Jane and Rochester must have been a highlight - understandably featured in the trailer.
The only part(s) that I found less than gripping were the latter scenes with ideologue St John which struck me as laboured, dramatically and emotionally but I wonder if that is the case too with the book. I was not really convinced by them…
The ending was very dramatically apposite and effective (we ended as we began) but I did wonder if it was a little to ‘clever’…
But a superb experience - and the time passed wonderfully quickly.
Cast:
Madeleine Worrall as Jane Eyre
Craig Edwards as Mr Brocklehurst/Pilot/Mason
Felix Hayes as Rochester
Laura Elphinstone as Poole/Abbot
Maggie Tagney as Mrs Reed/Mrs Fairfax
Simone Saunders as Bessie/Blanche Ingram/Diana Rivers
Melanie Marshall as Bertha Mason
Director: Sally Cookson