Jane Eyre touring Ireland

A new adaptation of Jane Eyre opens today, September 30, in Galway, Ireland:

Jane Eyre
adapted & directed by Michael McCaffery
City Theatre Dublin
Town Hall, Dublin

One of the best loved classics of all time, JANE EYRE is brought to you in this vivid new adaptation by City Theatre Dublin.
Charlotte Bronte’s love story with a difference takes an unconventional heroine - the plain, unremarkable governess Jane Eyre - and charts her growth to passionate, independent womanhood as she pursues her dream of marrying the man of her choice - the mysterious and tempestuous Edward Rochester.
JANE EYRE is a story of love and madness, passion, retribution and self-fulfillment. Set against the tumultuous landscape of the Yorkshire Moors, this Victorian masterpiece of mystery and suspense is also a highly personal account of one woman’s victory over the prejudice and discrimination which face her and thousands like her.
Acclaimed and decried in equal measure when it first appeared, JANE EYRE was quite literally, a sensation. Its outspoken attitude towards society, religion and sex was revolutionary, while the rich mix of melodrama, Gothic horror and tempestuous romance makes for a theatrical tour-de-force.
Mysterious, sensual, secretive, brutal—and often humorous, JANE EYRE is part psychological study, part fairy tale. Featuring some of Ireland’s most exciting emerging talent, City Theatre Dublin’s new adaptation draws on a variety of theatre and performance styles to bring this powerful, vital drama to life onstage. Adapted and directed by Michael McCaffery, follows the company’s acclaimed version of WUTHERING HEIGHTS.
Orphaned in infancy, Jane is forced to depend on the grudging charity of contemptuous relatives, enduring hardship and cruelty before being forced into the only work possible for her - governess to a child as little loved or wanted as herself.
But Jane triumphs over each adversity, turning it to her advantage until she is free to take her proper place in the world.

Cast

Jane Eyre ... Lorna Quinn
Philip Judge ... Rochester / Coachman / Voices
Jonathan Tynan ... John Reed / Pilot / 1st Servant / Lord Ingram / Richard Mason / Voices
Kieran Gough ... Brocklehurst / 2nd Servant / Colonel Dent / St John Rivers / Voices
Sinead Murphy ... Miss Abbott/ Miss Temple / Grace Poole / Eliza Reed / Blanche Ingram / Mary Rivers / Voices
Deirdre Monaghan ... Mrs Reed/ Miss Scatcherd/ Mrs Fairfax /Hannah /Voices
Phoebe Toal ... Bessie/ Helen Burns/ Adele/Diana Rivers/ Voices

TOUR

Town Hall Theatre, Galway
Tuesday 30 September - Thursday 2 October
10.15am, 1.15pm & 8pm (performances vary, see venue website for full details)
Cork Opera House
Tuesday 7 - Wednesday 8 October
8pm
St. Michael’s Theatre, New Ross, Wexford
Tursday 9 October
8pm
The Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny
Saturday 11 October
8pm
The Mill Theatre, Dundrum
Monday 13 - Saturday 18 October
3pm & 8pm (performances vary, see venue website for full details)
Briery Gap, Macroom
Monday 3 November
10am & 11.30am
Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise
Tuesday 4 November
8pm
The Garage Theatre, Monaghan
Wednesday 5 November
Time to be confirmed.
An Grianan Theatre, Letterkenny
Thursday 6 November
Time to be confirmed.
Mullingar Arts Centre
Friday 7 November
12.30pm & 8pm
Iontas, Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan
Saturday 8 November
8.30pm
The Backstage Theatre, Longford
Tursday 11 November
Time to be confirmed.
An Tain Theatre, Dundalk
Wednesday 12 November
Time to be confirmed.
Civic Theatre, Tallaght
Monday 17 - Saturday 22 November
11am & 8pm (performances vary, see venue website for full details)

The director and adaptor Michael McCaffery is interviewed in The Galway Advertiser (which by the way gives a whole new look to Charlotte Brontë):

Brontë’s novel has inspired numerous adaptations for both stage and screen. McCaffery sums up its enduring appeal.
“It’s like a fairy story, you can view it as a version of Cinderella,” he says. “You have the unregarded girl who everyone is horrible to but ultimately she rises from the ashes and marries her ‘prince’ – in this case, Mr Rochester. It was also one of the first novels to put a woman at the centre of the action and Jane shows she can be strong and dictate her own destiny, when she does get married its very much on her terms. It’s just a fabulous story with all these dramatic Gothic elements.”
McCaffery goes on to explain how he chose to approach the material in this new staging.
“As I was reading the book it dawned on me that the most important relationship in it isn’t between Jane and Rochester, as you might initially think, but between Jane and the reader,” he says.
“It presents this very personal account of her life, delivered directly to the reader - everything that happens in the book is seen from Jane’s viewpoint. What we’ve done is deploy the actors and elements like video inserts etc to come together to help Jane tell her story onstage. I wanted to get away from the kind of naturalism we’ve become familiar with through TV adaptations of 19th century novels and find a much more theatrical form of storytelling for the material.”
McCaffery also emphasises the importance of religion within the story.
“The novel presents two conflicting views of religion,” he says. “You have the Calvinist predestination view of the world which says that most of us are already damned, and against that there’s a more benign view which believes in forgiveness and redemption, and which is linked to the struggle for personal freedom.
“It’s easy for us, living in a secular age to forget just how big a role religion played in day-to-day Victorian life. Charlotte Brontë herself married a clergyman for instance and the novel engages in a serious debate about the good and bad points of religion.” (Charlie McBride)

Categories: Jane Eyre, Theatre