Carte Blanche to Gaskell & Brontë

A couple of alerts from Paris and Manchester:

1. A costumed reading of Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Brontë in Manchester, part of the Elizabeth Gaskell Bi-Centenary 2010:

Elizabeth Gaskell & Charlotte Brontë
April 13, 2010 - 6.00pm
The Portico

In 1850 when Elizabeth Gaskell was staying in the Lake District, she met ‘a little lady in a black silk gown, whom I could not see at first for the dazzle in the room’. The little lady was Charlotte Brontë, and this meeting began a warm friendship between two contrasting personalities – Charlotte timid and withdrawn, Elizabeth outward-going and gregarious. Charlotte came to stay several times at the Gaskell’s home in busy Plymouth Grove, Elizabeth went to the silent parsonage at Haworth, and they collaborated to ensure that publication of their novels did not clash. When Charlotte died she had become such an important literary figure that the press, then as now, was full of misinformation about her. Her father, Patrick Brontë, asked Elizabeth if she would put the record straight and write his daughter’s biography. The result was the outstanding and controversial Life, which still today is regarded as an important literary biography.

Based almost entirely on their own words, this costumed reading of Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Bronte tells the story of their friendship.

The InterTheatre Company, most of them professional performers, have presented this at 84 Plymouth Grove and elsewhere. It is devised and directed by Robin Allan.
Performance and buffet £16.50 (performance only £5.00)

2. In Paris, a special session at the Cinémathèque Française devoted to the choreographer Nasser Martin-Gousset will contain extracts from his piece Neverland (2002), inspired by Wuthering Heights:

Nasser Martin Gousset
Carte blanche
12 April, 20h
Cinémathèque française, Paris, France

Très fortement inspiré par le cinéma, le chorégraphe Nasser Martin-Gousset fait le bilan de ses influences lors d'une carte blanche exceptionnelle, où seront également projetés des extraits de ses pièces cultes.

Organisé par La Cinémathèque de la danse, le programme aura deux parties: l'une consacrée au cinéma et aux “figures emblématiques de la culture populaire” selon l'expression de Nasser Martin-Gousset ; l'autre donnera une version image de certaines de ses chorégraphies : Péplum, Neverland, Comédie (...)
Son travail reste très marqué par les textes littéraires, le cinéma, et le théâtre comme Neverland inspiré des Hauts de Hurlevent d'Emily Brontë. (Google translation)

Categories: Charlotte Brontë, Dance, Elizabeth Gaskell, Movies-DVD-TV, Theatre