Self-publish like the Brontës

Australian Stage reviews Polly Teale's Jane Eyre at Dictrict 01, Darlinghurst:

I really wanted to like this production. Jane Eyre is one of my favourite books: I have owned, in my life, about seven different copies of it. I was also really looking forward to seeing theatre at District 01, an exciting theatre space in Darlinghurst I'd never previously visited. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed. This production of Jane Eyre was melodramatic, awkward, and sorely in need of the services of an editor and a dramaturg.
There was clearly a very particular vision that this production was trying to convey. It portrayed Bertha (Rochester's mad first wife, played here by Beth Aubrey) as the sublimated dark side of Jane (Laura Huxley). While I don't subscribe to this reading of the text myself, it's certainly a valid one, and I have no argument with theatrical productions of canonical texts trying to apply readings in this way. In this play, however, it was done without any subtlety or elegance. The opening scene of the play, in which Jane fights with her cousin and aunt and is thrown into the red room as punishment, was done with both Huxley and Aubrey playing the role of Jane. It was awkward, confusing, and bizarre. Afterwards, Bertha continued to haunt Jane like a dark shadow. In some places, it was effective, but largely, the device was killed by overuse. It was a heavy handed approach to a delicate dynamic, and it meant that the character of Bertha was allowed no textual autonomy: reduced, instead, to a shadow of Jane. It made her subsequent actions (like setting Rochester on fire) extremely perplexing. When Bertha is allowed to be Bertha, this makes sense. When she is half-Bertha, half-Jane's-dark-side, it becomes much more confusing.
Some of the blame for this confusion can be laid at the door of the script, which was very unwieldly. However, I felt there were some deeper interpretive problems which probably came from the direction. Bertha was not the only character compromised – Jane herself suffered from it. Not only did transferring her rage to Bertha rob her of complexity, Huxley played Jane with eyes eternally downcast, far too submissive for the woman who memorably cries, "do you think that because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have just as much soul as you – and full as much heart!" The onstage chemistry between Huxley and Eli King, who played Rochester, was also sorely lacking, which meant that their (considerably sexed-up – Jane Eyre's sex dreams were certainly not in the book!) relationship rang somewhat hollow, especially in the second act. Jane Eyre is a text where passion bubbles below the surface, desperate lives being lived in the subtext, making the moments where it erupts much more powerful. There was no understanding of this demonstrated: frequent outward displays of passion undermined the impact of the moments which really are supposed to be intensely passionate. (Jodi McAlister) (read more)

Cornucopia Press, 'dedicated to helping unrecognized authors self-publish and promote their work', is quite ambitious in a press release:

We empower writers to join the ranks of authors like the Brontë sisters, Willa Cather, Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, Virginia Wolf [sic] and James Joyce, all of whom self-published at one point in their careers. 

The Keighley News reports Andrew McCarthy's goodbye. Women 24 comments on the forthcoming Jane Eyre Laid Bare.

The Brontë Weather Project features the 3 Bells piece of work. The Brussels Brontë Blog has a post on the recent AGM weekend. The Pie Bookery writes about Jane Eyre 2011. Quirkyreader is enjoying The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Flickr user Model Career has created a Wuthering Heights-inspired image.