Brontë in Bristol

New chances to see the Left-2-Write Theatre Company's performances of Polly Teale's Brontë:

Tobacco Factory’s Brewery Theatre
291 North Street, Southville, Bristol

Brontë by Polly Teale
Tuesday 25 - Wednesday 26 May
Start time: 8pm

The previous Bath performances have been reviewed by the Bristol Evening Post:

THE story of the Bronte family is as compelling as any of the novels penned by the sisters.
Performed by a Bath Spa University cast, it exposes the frustrations, emotions and fears of Charlotte, Emily and Anne by looking not only at their lives but through two of their characters.
It is the use of Imogen Rose as the physical embodiment of the young writers' thoughts which gives the production its special quality. She crawls around the stage in turn as Bertha, the insane, imprisoned wife of Rochester in Charlotte's Jane Eyre and as Cathy, the passionate lover of Heathcliff in Emily's Wuthering Heights.
Kirsty Hudson as Charlotte portrays the superior, ambitious older one of the trio seeking to boss the Yorkshire household. The intensely private Emily, who only wanted to write for herself, is suitably repressed as played by Florence Eedle and Sian Davies is the most bubbly as Anne who spends her time as referee between the other two.
There are also good performances from Josh Barnard as the drug-taking drunken brother Branwell and Gerry Fitzpatrick who carries all the other roles including the blind priestly father Patrick Bronte who outlived all his children and Arthur Bell Nicholls the curate who was Charlotte's husband in the final year of her life.
Writer Polly Teale, under the direction of Megan Fitzgerald, seems to draw double conclusions about the Brontes' lives and works showing that although on one hand they were trailblazers for the views and rights of women they were also, at heart, unfulfilled fantasists. (Alan King)

Categories: Theatre