The odious Rivers and the splendid Pilot

Sarah Hemmings from The Financial Times reviews the London's performances of Polly Teale's Jane Eyre (previous reviews here and here).

Polly Teale appears to have a bit of thing about the Brontës. Since Shared Experience first staged her adaptation of Jane Eyre nine years ago, she has directed After Mrs Rochester and Brontë (a piece exploring the creative impulses of the Yorkshire sisters). Of the three, I think it is this wild, rich and unexpectedly funny staging of Charlotte Brontë’s great novel that I like best (revived here by Teale for Shared Experience). I thought that after Brontë I had seen enough corseted passion for a while but the story itself pulled me in, as did Teale’s vivid production. (...)

So the piece opens with the drably clad Jane sitting on a staircase reading about the West Indies, while Bertha Mason, in scarlet silk, entwines around her. When the young Jane is locked in the Red Room for biting her odious cousin, it is not she but the dishevelled scarlet woman locked away with her who bellows abuse at her callous aunt. And, as Jane is bashed into submission by the school, this wild, rebellious female remains imprisoned on stage, occasionally breaking out to rail at injustice. Only when Jane is finally united with Mr Rochester on her own terms does the crazed woman subside.

Meanwhile the story itself is told briskly and wittily, as Jane falls for the moody and perverse Mr Rochester (James Clyde, all boots and hair). Monica Dolan gives an excellent performance as Jane: intense, odd and fascinating. Her angular little face and fierce eccentricity contrast well with Myriam Acharki’s sultry, sensual Bertha. The production has longueurs and it gallops through some sections of the story, such as Jane’s sojourn with the odious Rivers. But this is a bold adaptation that both tells the tale and rummages in the subtext. And it features a splendid performance from John Lightbody as Rochester’s faithful hound.

A splendid dog impersonator and an odious St. John Rivers, that's a good summary.

Note - In the picture, Harriette Ashcroft and Penny Layden in the last year's Dublin Festival performances. In the Lodon performances the roles are played by Monica Dolan and Myriam Acharki.

Categories: Jane_Eyre, Theatre, In_the_News