New Janes in Pittsburgh and Durham, part 2

Several news outlets report the new Jane Eyres on stage reported yesterday.

Independent Weekly on the Durham production:

Manbites Dog Theater—In 1847, Charlotte Brontë published her novel Jane Eyre under the gender-neutral pseudonym Currer Bell. Little did she appreciate that she would be considered one of the great female writers of English literature, and her work still packs a topical punch with its themes of women's equality, religious faith and hypocrisy, and the realization of one's true self.
The book has been previously adapted to other media, but Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern opens its own version, with actress Melissa Lozoff donning the writer's mantle and area theater veteran Tom Marriott directing. Little Green Pig's Jay O'Berski, who plays Rochester, promises that this show will not be a Masterpiece Theatre take but edgy and expressionistic. Lovers of the tale need not fret, because we're told it will be "a show for the whole family." (Belem Destefani)

And these three on the Pittsburgh production. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Even if you've never read Charlotte Bronte's 19th-century romance, "Jane Eyre," or seen one of the many filmed versions of the novel, you probably know something of the story, so embedded is it in our literary and cultural psyche.
It's not just the gothic suspense or the love-conquers-all conventions that make "Jane Eyre" a classic; it's the plucky heroine who overcomes the harsh circumstances of her youth. "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me," Jane declares. "I am a free human being with an independent will."
In the stage adaptation by Alan Stanford, there are three Janes: senior Jane, who handles the narration, young orphan Jane and the heroine who takes a job as a governess and meets her destiny in the master of the house, Edward Rochester.
At times, older Jane is onstage with her younger self, and that's one way the familiar story becomes its own theatrical entity, said Scott Wise, directing the production coming to Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theater Saturday.
"From my point of view, one of the major things we do in theater is play with time," Wise said. "Things move at their own pace. Theater has its own rhythm and use of time, it's not like day-to-day life. So it's an extension of that concept that an older and younger Jane can be onstage at the same time. It's already a language of the theater."
Wise was coy when asked how the sets will transport us from, say, school to home to courtyard, again referencing that illusion of time and space.
"I think that Gianni Downs has designed a beautifully environmental space. We do [move from place to place, as in the novel], but we do it in a theatrical fashion," was all he would say.
The actors charged with transporting us to the 19th century of Bronte's novel, and Stanford's interpretation of it, include David Whalen, a familiar face at PICT and other local stages. He plays the charismatic Rochester opposite Allison McLemore, the plain Jane who blossoms with intelligence and strength. Shelley Delaney, like McLemore a newcomer to Pittsburgh, serves as the narrator -- duties handled in the book by the novelist. Jenna Lanz is young Jane.
Theatergoers will learn quickly that "Allison is on her own a veteran actor, just not of Pittsburgh," Wise said. For the director, "It's always exciting to work with someone new, and pleasurable to work with someone you've worked with before. Every cast is a new mix of personalities and backgrounds; it's kind of a joy, really."
Wise was speaking by phone during a break in tech rehearsals earlier this week. He has a comfort level at PICT, where he's also directed "Pride and Prejudice" and James Joyce's "The Dead." The director is a professor in the School of Theater at Point Park University and was the founder and artistic director of Pittsburgh International Folk Theatre.
With "Jane Eyre," he and the company are tackling a work that has been done twice for enthusiastic audiences at the Guthrie Theatre in Minnesota, but hasn't had many other productions to provide reference points.
Wise said he and his cast have all done their research of manners of the period, as well as "diving into the novel and rereading, checking for character, the structure of a scene," but it's the text of Stanford's play that holds sway.
Perhaps the most famous line from the novel is "Reader, I married him." The playwright has necessarily reworked certain aspects of Bronte's work to translate them to the stage.
Familiarity with the story, particularly for anyone who has read the novel or seen film adaptations, could mean that big reveals lose their impact, but Wise said that changing the venue changes everything, and the suspense remains.
"I think that there's actually a short answer and it is that theater isn't a film and it's not a miniseries, so the way the play is adapted to fit it to play length, so events happen at their own theatrical rhythm, instead of more life-like rhythm of a film or a novel. That's true of any adaptation of one art form to another."
PICT has billed the play as a "holiday romance for the whole family," and Wise said he is aware of the timing and the role it plays in how audiences relate to the material.
"Theater is a right-now art form and it's immediate. Where we are now even with the economy, it's different than it was in the summer. ... This time of year is a special time in the same way that spring is its own special time. You can't help but feel that."
Wise hadn't had the opportunity to speak with Stanford, who has been in England and communicating mostly through PICT artistic director Andrew Paul.
When they do have a chance for a face-to-face, "There's something I'd definitely say, and that's thank you," the director said. "That sounds kind of show-biz-y, I know, but it's honest. Every day, I find something wonderful about what he's done, so it's a joy to come to work on this adaptation." (Sharon Eberson)

The Tribune (Which includes several pictures):

Peer into the soul of any dark, moody and silent romantic hero, and you'll find a tortured man possessed of a dark secret.
Whether it's Mr. Rochester in the Victorian classic "Jane Eyre," for which Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre begins performances today, or Don Draper in the AMC television series "Mad Men," we tend to yearn for the guys who tread the darker path.
"Who would pick Ashley Wilkes over Rhett Butler or Victor Lazlo over Rick Blaine or Luke Skywalker over Han Solo?" asks Tracy Brigden, a South Side resident who is a fan of "Mad Men," as well as artistic director at City Theatre.
As a woman, Brigden feels a little guilty that she sympathizes more with Don Draper -- a 1960s ad man who cheats on his wife -- than she does with his wife, Betty.
She believes that's because the show's creators were very clever in manipulating our emotions.
"His whole past is full of sadness, abuse and dark secrets," Brigden says. "She has been catered to and spoiled. We ourselves often feel deprived and sympathize with the ones who haven't gotten this in their lives."
The brooding, mysterious Edward Fairchild Rochester in "Jane Eyre" appeals to Allison McLemore because she was a romantic in her own childhood.
McLemore is one of three actresses who plays Jane Eyre in the Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre production of Alan Stanford's stage adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's novel.
Written in 1847, the story focuses on the emotional bond that develops between the remote, moody and gruff but passionate Rochester and the outspoken and intelligent young Jane, whom he hires to be the governess for Adele, the daughter of his former mistress.
As her affection and sympathy for him grow, Jane sees a man in pain, even though she doesn't understand its source.
"There's that want to figure out why -- at least as a reader -- to understand why he would behave that way, and there has to be a big secret reason," McLemore says. "She hurts for him even though she doesn't know what's hurting him. He just gives her little pieces.
"She sees his flaws and how much he struggles with them," she says. "She becomes protective of him. They have a meeting of minds and come to understand each other."
Seen from his perspective, Rochester's moodiness and suspicion is natural, says David Whalen, who plays Rochester.
"It comes from being cheated upon and feeling he was dealt a bad hand, and the distrust causes his darkness and his temperament," Whalen says. "He's testing her throughout, and she passes every test throughout. The big test is the revelation of (his dark secret)."
Seeing that these types of dark characters also have positive attributes helps us find them attractive: Batman works to rid Gotham City of evildoers; Fitzwilliam Darcy saves Lydia and the entire Bennett family from social ruin; Don Draper promotes Peggy in a male-centric business; and Edward Rochester treats Jane as an intellectual equal.
Not everyone is an admirer, of course.
"I never got the attraction -- for Jane or any readers who admire Mr. R(ochester)," says Kevin Stemmler, a professor of English literature at Clarion College.
"I always felt like the union of Jane and Rochester was a cop-out; I never feel joy at '... reader, I married him.' I can't get past the fact that she's merely turning herself into another form of caregiver, which is the only role available to Jane in her society and in the book. So my reading is clearly drowning in feminism."
However, Stemmler says those objections never interfere with his enjoyment of similar plots and characters in Jane Austen's novels:
"Darcy's 'brooding' nature works for him and for the plot of the novel; Rochester's brooding never elevates him from the dark side for me. ... He seems like he's too high-maintenance and has too much baggage -- and that madwoman's in the attic for a reason."
Even though these heroes begin by being remote or cruel or just plain self-absorbed, part of our pleasure in their stories is watching them grow and change, says Mell Steven Cosnek of Ross, president of the Jane Austen Society of North America, Pittsburgh Region.
"Readers witness Darcy change, and this is where 'Pride and Prejudice' is very like 'Jane Eyre.' Both women bring about significant change in the men," he says. "Darcy and Rochester both exhibit more self-awareness, soften their pride and tempers, and display more of what we would today call sensitivity. And, perhaps, this is what makes both characters so appealing and romantic: the idea that love has changed them for the better."
Their passionate natures don't hurt these dark heroes, either, Brigden says.
"The person who is emotional and passionate and has had life experience that led them to this place means they are going to be more passionate and exciting and dynamic," Brigden says. "You want the one who's going to sweep you off your feet rather than shake your hand. Loss, life experience and damage lead you down that path."
Whalen agrees.
"That's why people get swept up -- for every cynical bone in your body to see that love like that does exist. Why young audiences and readers love the story is that, maybe, that world does exist," Whalen says. "What woman wouldn't want a man to tell them, 'Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own.'" (Alice T. Carter)

The article then picks 'other moody men we love' - Heathcliff being one of them.

Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff in "Wuthering Heights" (1939): Out of his depth in a world where class and money matter, Heathcliff can only watch powerlessly as he's banished to work in the stables and see his soul mate married off to a rich neighbor. He disappears, returning years later with lots of money. But wealth can't heal the pain of betrayal that he harbors. (Alice T. Carter)

Finally, the Pittsburgh City Paper only reports the event:

Thu., Dec. 3 -- Stage
In a new stage adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, you get three Victorian heroines for the price of one: the young, orphaned Jane (Jenna Lanz); young adult Jane (Allison McLemore); and an older Jane (Shelley Delaney), who narrates. The Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre production of Alan Stanford's script also stars PICT favorite David Whalen, as that mysterious Mr. Rochester. Scott Wise directs, with original music by Douglas Levine. The first performance (one of two preview shows before the Dec. 5 formal opening) is tonight.

EDIT (09/12/09): A couple more reviews have been featured in the press. From the Observer-Reporter:

Gothic horror
A nicer critic would pretend that Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre's production of "Jane Eyre" never happened, but who feels like being nice? I'd rather tar and feather writer Alan Stanford for what he did to Charlotte Bronte's novel.
And what he did, besides lift the story's gloomier shadows and downplay the misery endured by its title character, is employ one of the corniest devices I've ever seen.
That is, moving the novel's first-person narrative voice from the page to the proscenium, he has a "senior Jane" hover on stage at all times, giving her account of the story and interacting with her younger self. She's no better than an intruder, though, and despite Shelley Delaney's professionalism in the role, her awkward presence just sends the whole plot flying out the window and right into a cement wall.
Director Scott Wise tries wherever he can to capture the novel's elegant mysteriousness and slow-burning sexual tension, but to no avail. He and a cast that also includes Allison McLemore, David Whalen, Kate Young, Anna Van Valin and Joel Ripka are thwarted from the get-go by Stanford's silly, ponderous adaptation. (Doug Shanaberger)

And from The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (again):

Like a red wagon that's impossible to disguise under the Christmas tree despite reams of wrapping paper, Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre's holiday gift presents no surprises.
Inside the handsome costumes, lovely live music by Douglas Levine and Mary Beth Malek and the forceful portrayal of the title character, this "Jane Eyre" is as conventional as icicle lights. It's really a staged reading of the 1847 Gothic romance, well, actually about half of the novel, slashed by adaptor Alan Stanford.
The set by scenic designer Gianni Downs blares the literary, rather than theatrical, nature of this production as well. The stage is dominated by a backdrop magnifying a handwritten page from the book.
Directed by Point Park University's Scott Wise as a series of static tableaus with an on-stage narrator, the play skips along the surface of the novel like a flat stone bouncing across the water.
This treatment serves only to highlight the novel's absurd plot without fully dramatizing Charlotte Bronte's issues of women's servitude, the horrors of a perverted religion and the heartless poverty of 19th-century England.
Stripped to the bare bones of her fantasy of goodness rewarded, this "Jane Eyre" plays much like a comedy, particularly in the early scenes between Jane and Mr. Rochester, the half-crazy romantic hero, delivered with mock-heroic melodramatics by David Whalen in a scraggly wig, jaw jutting like Dudley Do-Right.
His plaintive "I'm blind, crippled and 20 years older than you" cry to Jane is just one of the many over-the-top declarations he utters as the audience smiles and chuckles at the hammy moments.
Yet, throughout it all stands the dignified and stalwart Allison McLemore as the adult Jane. It's hard to play a perfect human being who remains steadfast in her Christian tolerance and love despite deprivations that would kill most people, but McLemore manages it with spirit.
In her exchanges with the scenery-chewing Whalen, she parries his bluster and crassness with the guilelessness and honesty of the innocent Bronte creation. The script on the other hand gives Whalen only histrionics to work with as Jane's troubled lover with a dark secret hidden at Thornfield Hall.
The manor's furnishings troubled me. Designer Downs placed clumps of fake boulders around the stage and they double as the manor's furniture. Somebody might be tempted to ask, "I say, Rochester old chap, what's that big rock doing in the drawing room?"
Sure, I know Downs used them to indicate the English countryside, but most of the play is set indoors, so his choice seems out of synch.
Jane finally gets outside after fleeing Rochester, only to be gathered indoors by the holier-than-thou Rivers family. Joel Ripka plays the saintly missionary St. John with a heavy dose of piety and smugness. Anna Van Valin slides from the haughty Blanche role to the hospitable Diana Rivers easily.
The unwieldy script requires the actors to double up, and in Catherine Moore's case, handle four parts from the nasty Mrs. Reed to the guardian of the secrets, Grace Pool, in an orange rag-mop wig that might have been ripped off Raggedy Ann.
PICT regulars Kate Young, as the capable Mrs. Fairfax, and Larry John Meyers, all bluster and solemnity in two parts, head up the competent supporting cast.
Shelley Delaney handles the thankless role as the elder Jane gracefully and with a cheery smile. She's the narrator, coaching her younger self along the thorny paths, although she often gets lost in the action on stage.
PICT's "Jane Eyre" is a 2 1/2-hour hike through this long, complicated novel that resists that kind of condensation, unlike the light and frothy version of "Pride and Prejudice" that PICT did so well two years ago as its holiday show.
The adaptation also cuts too many fondly remembered scenes. PICT's cast and crew soldier on, though, and make the best of things despite the rocks thrown in their path. (Bob Hoover)

Categories: Jane Eyre, Theatre