Not your classic good looking hero

A Younger Theatre reviews the Rosemary Branch Theatre’s production of Jane Eyre.

It is the meticulous attention to detail in the direction (Bryony J. Thompson) that makes the Rosemary Branch Theatre’s production of Jane Eyre so special. Each moment is carefully crafted, and it is clear that thought has been put into every gesture, movement, line, pathway and interaction. [...]
The warm and inviting atmosphere in the Rosemary Branch Theatre feels very celebratory as the show celebrates the two hundredth birthday of Charlotte Brontë.
The performance space is bare with just six wooden chairs used for set and the actors wear cream period clothing throughout. This perfectly complements the piece and I did not once feel it needed anything else. Its simplicity is counteracted by the intricate and complex detail of the words and movements. All actors remain on stage for the entire piece, which allows for great smoothness of transitions; it is clear the cast are well rehearsed and are very comfortable with both the text and each other. All six actors – Alice Coles, Jack Collard, Madeline Gould, Alice Osmanski, Ben Warwick and Emilia Williams – are extremely versatile as they switch frequently between different roles. The speed of dialogue and plot progression means there is barely a moment to even catch a breath, but this captivates the audience members.
The well-loved line, “Reader, I married him”, is delivered with such delight it moved me to tears and the feeling of joy from the audience on leaving the theatre is palpable.
A wonderful adaptation. (Lily Hayes)

Felix Hayes, who plays Mr Rochester in Sally Cookson's adaptation of Jane Eyre, speaks to Nottingham Post.

"Rochester's darkness and wit were the things that most attracted me to him and I found him laugh-out-loud funny, especially at how cutting and to the point he can be.
"He has a dark sense of humour and is an enigmatic character; it is an incredibly complicated role to play.
"He's a bit broken dark and brooding, not your classic good looking hero."
People who may not have read the book might assume that the production's main focus is on Jane Eyre's romantic relationship with Rochester but Hayes is quick to remind us that this is not the case.
"People forget that a lot of the novel is not made up of the relationship story between Rochester and Jane," he says. "When their relationship develops she questions him in a way no one ever has, he finds Jane fascinating and he hits the nail on the head with her every time they talk as she does with him.
"What people must remember is that this is not a typical love story and the relationship that starts is a very real one. [...]
Audiences who expect a traditional adaptation of the classic tale will be pleasantly surprised as Jane's story will be told by a company of seven performers and three musicians who all devised the production.
He adds: "As show it's a massively ensemble piece, there isn't a moment when anyone is off the stage and the music plays as an integral part of the show as do any of the characters, Benji Bower [music director] is a bit of a genius.
"We all take great pride in the play and there is a real sense of the company telling the life story – not love story – of Jane. As a company we devised it and wrote it ourselves and we have a kind ownership of it and that's a lovely feeling. (Charlotte McIntyre)

Yale Daily News reviews the play The Moors.

Most people with a secondary school education didn’t get past 12th grade without being exposed to Victorian literature and the immense vocabulary of the Brontë sisters. Don’t get me wrong — I love Charlotte, Emily and Anne like any other pseudo-intellectual feminist, but taking turns reading “Wuthering Heights” aloud line by line in a monotonous voice is a more effective soporific than Ambien.
I wonder if I would’ve expressed more interest in Jane Eyre’s woes had I previously had the pleasure of watching “The Moors,” a play that enjoyed its world premiere at the Yale Repertory Theater this week. (Agnes Enkhtamir)

Hereford Times features writer and performer Rebecca Vaughan.

In April Austen's Women will be put away again, and Dalloway, an adaptation of Virginia Woolf will go on tour, and in May Rebecca is taking Jane Austen to Sydney. All this while working on an adaptation of Jane Eyre, which Dyad [Productions] will take to Edinburgh this year. (Philippa May)

In the Oxford Mail, actress Phoebe Thomas describes her role in a production of Hetty Feather

like a young Jane Eyre, so it is a very emotional story, but also very theatrical. (Katherine MacAlister)

While Contra Costa Times describes Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddygore as

the world of Jane Austen with an old-fashioned English ghost story, with just a dash of "Wuthering Heights" romance, in a tale of upright Regency youths and maidens kept apart by propriety, social convention, and a witch's curse.

RTVE (Spain) tells about the films that inspired the Spanish Goya film awards nominees. Both Jane Eyre 2011 and Wuthering Heights 2011 seem to have inspired the film La novia.

La novia: Adaptaciones de la literatura inglesa del XIX
Las adaptaciones de clásicos de la literatura española no abundan en el cine. Así que no es extraño que para su preciosista adaptación lorquiana, Paula Ortiz apuntará como referentes a los anglosajones, más acostumbrado a revistar sus glorias.
“Conscientemente, con el director de fotografía, revisamos Jane Eyre (2011), de Cary Fukunaga. Tiene un toque entre lo irreal y real del ciertos autores del romanticismo inglés: Roza con códigos del terror sin serlo”.
“Y, sobre todo, Cumbres borrascosas (2012), de Andrea Arnold. Es apabullante. Un clásico romántico con ese tinte trágico más dramático, traducido a un lenguaje más intenso estéticamente, muy atmosférica”. (Esteban Ramón) (Translation)

This reviewer from NJ.com is crystal clear in his opinion of the film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Really feel like some scary romance? Go stream last year's criminally underrated "Crimson Peak," or read "Jane Eyre" by candlelight. And let this zombie comedy shuffle back to the graveyard it dug itself out of. (Stephen Whitty)

While this columnist from Memphis Flyer is self-admittedly confused about period films.

I get Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, and Jane Eyre confused. I always remember that Heathcliff and Catherine are in Wuthering Heights because of that Monty Python sketch where they act it out in semaphore. Obviously, as problems go, this isn't a bad one. There are just all those wailing women and wives in attics and silent, deeply disturbed men; who can keep up? I tried to watch a movie adaptation of one of these not too long ago. I don't remember which because they're all the same, but this had Tom Hardy in it. I couldn't pay attention to the story because of Tom Hardy's lips. Have you seen them? (Susan Wilson)

The film - or miniseries, rather - was obviously Wuthering Heights 2009.

A Super Quiz in Times Union has a Brontë-related question. The Brontë Parsonage Facebook page announced that the museum could be seen on yesterday's Holiday of My Lifetime.

Holiday of My Lifetime with Len Goodman
Series 2: Episode 4
Len travels with TV presenter and actress Lisa Riley to Haworth, West Yorkshire, which Lisa used to visit with her mother. They visit the Brontë museum and take high tea in a café.

  AnneBrontë.org posts about the exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum: Charlotte Brontë--Great and Small.