Australian Brontë theatre

Two Australian productions of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights open today, May 9.

In New Farm, Brisbane:

Jane Eyre
adapted by Polly Teale
Harvest Rain Theatre Group

SEASON - 9 - 31 May 2008
SHOW TIMES - Wed - Sat @ 7.30pm / Sat @ 2pm
PREVIEWS - 7 & 8 May @ 7.30pm
MATINEES - Sat 10, 17, 24 & 31 May @ 2pm
VENUE - Sydney Street Theatre, New Farm

A lonely orphan girl finds love and passion in the face of hardship, but in the attic lies a dark secret....
From the director of last year's sell-out season of LITTLE WOMEN comes yet another stunning theatrical presentation of a classic and beloved novel – JANE EYRE.
Hidden between the musty pages of Charlotte Bronte's famous novel lurks a ripping yarn just waiting to be told on stage, with Polly Teale's adaptation bringing the gothic novel to raging life. This timeless coming-of-age story of one of literature's most independent and strong-willed women was recognized as a masterpiece when it was published in 1847 and remains a startlingly modern blend of passion, romance and suspense.
Jane Eyre is obscure and plain but locked up in the attic of her imagination lives a woman so passionate, so wild, so full of longing, she must be guarded night and day for fear of the havoc she would wreak. Who is this terrifying woman who threatens to destroy Jane's orderly world: a world where Jane has for the first time fallen in love? Harvest Rain's production transforms Bronte's great novel into deeply affecting psychological drama, featuring Queensland finest acting talent and award-winning design.

DIRECTOR: Joanna Butler
DESIGNER: Josh McIntosh
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Naomi Price
FEATURING: Julie-Anna Evans, Edward Foy, Elizabeth Gibney, Jeni Godwin, Cameron Hurry, Kathryn Marquet, Kylie Morris, Leigh Walker and Tanya Dougherty as Jane Eyre.

A couple of videos can be seen on the company's webpage.

In Fremantle:

Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte, adapted by Charles Vance
Directed by Nicola Bond
(A Community Theatre production by Kind Permission of Dominie Pty Ltd)
Harbour Theatre Inc

Venue:
The Princess May Theatre
Fremantle Education Centre
Cnr Cantonment & Parry Streets Fremantle
(next to Clancy’s Fish Pub).

Dates:
May 9th, 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 17th, 21st, 23rd & 24th 2008.
Doors open at 7.30pm, with curtain up at 8:00pm sharp.

MATINEE: Sunday May 11th, commencing at 2pm

Emily Brontë’s classic tale of passion and revenge “Wuthering Heights” is Harbour Theatre’s second production for 2008. "Wuthering Heights" is the classic story of Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s all-encompassing yet thwarted love and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys both themselves and many around them. This gripping tale is brought to life in an adaptation that retains all of the integrity of the original novel.
Director Nicola Bond recently stated, “It has always been my dream to direct this wonderful story and to have an extremely strong cast of actors able to handle the depth of emotion that this play demands. I have not been disappointed – the actors have had to dig deep within themselves to discover the many facets of the individual characters they portray. They do so brilliantly.”

Cast (in alphabetical order):
Isabella Linton: Michelle Berg
Catherine Earnshaw: Janine Brammal
Edgar Linton: David Bruce
Hareton Earnshaw: Adam Dear
Hindley Earnshaw: Jason Dohle
Cathy Linton: Danielle Gilsenan
Lockwood: Alan Kennedy
Ellen Dean: Susan Lynch
Joseph: Tom Rees
Heathcliff: Travis Vladich

In the picture: Travis Vladich as Heathcliff, Janine Bramall as Catherine Earnshaw. Picture Source.

EDIT:
Rave Magazine publishes a review of the Harvest Rain production of Jane Eyre:

At my all girls’ high school, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and her eponymous heroine were taught as the definitive progenitors of both women’s fiction and modern womanhood. In spite of the story being pure melodrama – “poor, obscure, and plain” girl meets broody hero with a dark marital past hidden in the attic – Jane Eyre remains pertinent as a heroine because of her intelligence, forthright sense of her moral self, and a desire for worldly knowledge.

In an inspired adaptation, British playwright Polly Teale has translated Brontë’s novel into a highly imaginative stage-play without losing any of the story’s charm or power, while bringing to light contemporary questions of its tropes. One important question, as director Joanna Butler writes in her program notes to Harvest Rain Theatre Company’s production of Jane Eyre, is “why did Brontë invent a madwoman to torment her heroine?”

With a literary-critical bent, Teale has responded by fusing the ‘madwoman in the attic’ with a characterised alter ego of Jane; as Rochester locks up his lunatic wife Bertha, so too does the young Jane repress her inner fervour and fury.

The play opens with the child Jane Eyre (Tanya Dougherty) playing with her energetic inner self, Bertha (Kathryn Marquet). Recently orphaned, Jane is emotionally abused by her carers, and sent to a strict boarding school. Learning that if she is to survive her grim circumstances she must restrain her emotional impulses, Jane psychologically abandons Bertha, thus ‘locking up’ a side of her self deemed unacceptable. When she arrives as a governess at Thornfield Hall, Jane strikes up a tumultuous friendship with the brusque master of the house, Mr Rochester (Edward Foy). All the while, Bertha watches from her attic cell, until the sudden revelation of Rochester’s secret past causes a rupture in the burgeoning romance between Jane and her employer.

Supporting the three main protagonists are a solid ensemble cast, including Julie-Anna Evans, Elizabeth Gibney, Jeni Godwin, Cameron Hurry, Kylie Morris, and Leigh Walker, rotating between various character parts. Butler’s direction of the cast is generally strong, although some awkward scene changes seemed to halt the action, which I imagine was written to revolve around Jane rather than as distinct, naturalistic scenes. Josh Mcintosh’s design of Bertha’s attic is aptly claustrophobic and sickly-red, but with the main action firmly planted in the middle of the large stage, the rest of the space felt under-utilised.

Dougherty gives a polished performance as Jane and, as well as looking perfectly the part, gently amplifies Jane’s wit and her noble sense of pride. Dougherty and Foy’s Rochester have a natural on-stage chemistry that makes the romance between the unlikely lovers both genuine and immensely likeable.

The role of Bertha – silenced and confined to a small space – must be extremely challenging for an actor, as it is for a director to realise. Kathryn Marquet’s performance sustained well the energy of a woman gradually reduced to insanity. But I wonder if there is a more interesting way to portray ‘madness’ that is presumably a result of cruelty and captivity, especially when the character also represents the suppressed emotion of a very rational woman.

What is so intriguing about Teale’s adaptation is the psychological implication of effectively splitting Jane’s personality into two parallel figures, both punished by patriarchal society for acting too freely. This is an inspired dramaturgical premise, and one that director Butler has clearly relished in her production – even if the adaptation warrants a more nuanced characterisation of irrationality. (Seanna Van Helten)

Categories: Jane Eyre, Theatre, Wuthering Heights