What's on at the Brontë Parsonage

Diane Fare from the Brontë Parsonage Museum writes about what's on at the Parsonage in The Telegraph and Argus.

Charlotte's 200th birthday may have passed but we still got plenty to celebrate as her bicentenary year moves on.
This weekend sees two highlights of Haworth’s annual calendar falling at the same time, the national Museums At Night and the village’s own 1940s Weekend.
Everyone is welcome to come along to the Parsonage on Friday evening to share stories from wartime as our contribution to Museums At Night.
The museum will be open from 6.30pm to 8pm when tales of childhood courage and wartime adventure will be told in the historic rooms by candlelight.
This event is free to all visitors providing evidence of living in the BD22, BD21 or BD20 postcode areas and Thornton. Usual admission prices apply to all other visitors.
The 1940s weekend runs on Saturday and Sunday May 14 and 15, when the museum will have special 1940s display of memorabilia and film stills from some of the Golden Age of Hollywood’s finest Brontë adaptations.
Visitors can discover the impact these films had on public perceptions of the Brontës and their works. The display is free with admission to the museum.
As part of the 200th anniversary celebrations we’re having talks at the Parsonage on one Tuesday each month at 2pm.
The June 7 talk is entitled Uncovering Brontë Country, and focuses on northern locations that feature in the writing of Charlotte Brontë. The talk is free on admission to the museum.
Our efforts will then turn to our Summer Festival Weekend, which include special events alongside the Brontë Society’s annual general meeting.
Society members have received priority for booking, with any remaining places made available to non-members.
The Story of the Withins Farms is a talk by local historian Steve Wood and his co-author Peter Brears, in the West Lane Baptist Centre on June 10 at 3pm.
The pair will share the history of the Withins Farms, based on research for their recently-released book The Real Wuthering Heights: The Story Of The Withins Farms. Tickets cost £7.50.
Comedy duo LipService will unveil their new film Charlotte – The Movie! on June 10 at 7.30pm in the West Lane Baptist Centre.
The long-established duo have created the film, especially for Charlotte’s bicentenary. The film also features Emily, but apparently Anne has just popped out for a cup of sugar.
Audrey and Olivia from the National Institute For Bringing History To Life Society have been given exclusive access to the Parsonage to make one of the most revelatory films about Charlotte Brontë ever produced.
In this insightful drama-documentary, they reveal that Charlotte liked nothing better than to knock through and brighten up a drab corner with some choice chintz, that Emily had an insatiable penchant for mint humbugs, and that Anne was the inspiration between behind many of Alan Ayckbourn’s successful stage farces.
Charlotte’s latest biographer Claire Harman addresses more serious matters during the Brontë Society’s annual lecture on June 11.

And now for different takes on Jane Eyre all over the world:

Fauquier Times features the local performances of Jane Eyre the Musical.

Fauquier Community Theatre's performance of “Jane Eyre” does justice to the source material. Intense chemistry flows between its two stars, Shawn Cox as Edward Rochester and Elizabeth Gillespie as Jane Eyre. Cox conveys animal magnetism through his baritone voice, which ranges from a harsh whisper, similar to Hugh Jackman’s in the movie version of “Les Misérables,” to full-throated declarations of angst. [...]
“When I heard FCT was doing Jane Eyre, I decided to audition,” he said. “Rochester is a fascinating character, hugely conflicted. He’s been hurt many times and has built a wall around his emotions. He has to learn to be vulnerable.”
Cox said his challenge is to make Rochester both likeable, scary, and open to the possibility of redemption.
“He sees himself, reflected in Jane’s eyes, as a better person than he has been,” Cox said.
Of her character, Gillespie said, “Jane is not an ingénue. When everyone else needs to know what to do, she’s there, and stands fast. She’s very strong, and knows how to fight without being aggressive. She’s a good executor of her own principled convictions.”
Director Emily Hibl said “Jane Eyre” might be an unlikely subject for a musical. But the book's first-person narrative creates a sense of intimacy that translates well to the stage, she said.
“The music brings out the intense emotion of the book, with all its passion and angst,” Hibl said.
Although Hibl has acted in many of FCT’s productions, this is her first stint as director. “It’s exciting,” she said. “I get to create my own overall vision.” Hibl describes her two stars as “Pure magic on the stage. Their voices are just spot-on for the roles they play.”
The large supporting cast is uniformly fine, with an especially good performance from Tina Mullins as the dithering but sympathetic and stalwart housekeeper, Mrs. Fairfax. (Constance Lyons)

The Star has an article on the premiere next week of Northern Ballet's Jane Eyre in Doncaster.

One of literature’s most iconic heroines goes on a journey of courage, romance and tragedy with the world première of Northern Ballet’s Jane Eyre next Thursday (May 19).
Based on the novel by Charlotte Brontë and performed during the 200th anniversary of her birth, Northern Ballet will bring this beautiful love story to life at Cast next week in a show that’s already sold out. [...]
The show has been choreographed by internationally-acclaimed British dance maker Cathy Marston, who created the Dickens classic A Tale of Two Cities for Northern Ballet in 2008.
She said: “Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was a novel far ahead of its time and when I think of Jane I feel inspired by images of her passionate but ‘impossible’ relationship with Mr Rochester, the fire and emotional destruction symbolised by Bertha Mason – the infamous ‘woman in the attic’, the contrasting icy moorland through which she seems to run from one chapter of her life to another, and of course her final reunion with Rochester.
“But these images only touch the surface of a character and a book that continue to provoke and move, generation after generation, re-read after re-read.” (Julia Armstrong)

Frankfurter Rundschau (Germany) reviews the stage production of Jane Eyre in Wiesbaden.

Beim Klettern geht es diesmal aber nicht um sportive Leistungen, sondern lediglich um ein Feld für die kleinen gesellschaftlichen Peinlichkeiten, Ungeschicklichkeiten, Anstrengungen, jene Verrenkungen, die Jane Eyre so fremd sind, die ihr das Leben aber gleichwohl aufzwingt. Beka Savic hat sich dazu Szenen und Momente ausgesucht, ohne auch nur im mindesten den Versuch einer Nacherzählung oder Komplettillustration anzupeilen.
Die radikale Abwesenheit von Dekor lässt ein Blumenkränzlein wie illuminiert erscheinen, ein kleiner Abend, der achtsam ist wie Janes selbst sich das nie leisten könnte. Der aber auch lebt von einer überraschenden, haargenauen, konzentrierten Schauspielerleistung. Ohne Kruna Savic, die Schwester der Regisseurin, wäre das Unterfangen in dieser Form sinnlos gewesen.
Kruna Savic ist eine perfekte Jane Eyre, aber nicht die, die sich der Kinobesucher am Ende doch vorstellen wird (nämlich die aparte Charlotte Gainsbourg), sondern eine äußerlich unauffällige, sympathische Frau. Auch in ihren heldischen Momenten – den guten Antworten, die sie gibt – eine Heldin, wie Frauen sie sich erdenken mögen. Kruna Savic spielt das sehr sparsam, hervorragend gelingen dadurch etwa die Kinderszenen, unter Erwachsenen bekanntlich eine zumeist beschämende Sache.
Kruna Savic als kleines Mädchen Jane ist hingegen von Niedlichkeit so weit entfernt wie von ihrer Umgebung. Manchmal sagt sie etwas kaum Hörbares, nicht weil sie schüchtern wäre, sondern weil die Menschen um sie herum sich einfach unmöglich verhalten. Regie und Schauspielerin treiben dem Zuschauer den Rest von romantischen Empfindungen aus, die dank der Rezeption mit dem Namen der Autorin und der Titelheldin verbunden sein mögen.
Auch Janning Kahnert hilft dabei weiter, ein eher kurioser als faszinierender Mr. Rochester. Er und die beiden Savics lassen uns unverhohlen daran teilhaben, dass sie Jane Eyre mögen, dass sie das Buch mögen, dass sie die glühende Leidenschaft mögen, die unter der Nüchternheit selbstverständlich durchaus glüht, bisweilen gar lodert.
Kruna Savic und Kahnert machen auch andere Rollen unter sich auf, sofern sie Beka Savic zur Formung ihrer intensiven Kurzfassung sinnvoll erschienen. Die Rollenwechsel werden über die eleganten, dicht am Realistischen doch oft unwahrscheinlichen Kostüme (von Darinka Mihajlovic) signalisiert. Vor allem aber dadurch, dass die Darsteller dann einfach jemand anderes sind.
Die Musik von Nils Strunk besteht aus einer einfachen Melodei, die den Abend über immer erwachsener und eigenartiger zu werden scheint. Sorgfalt wurde hier in alles gesteckt. (Judith Von Sternburg) (Translation)

Still on the stage, albeit connected to Wuthering Heights, The List comments on Clown Cabaret in which

Lewis Hetherington adapts Kate Bush’s famous Wuthering Heights dance (perhaps following Peter McMaster’s adaptation of the novel) to parody masculinity and notions of fame and nostalgia. (Gareth K Vile)

The American Conservative reviews the book This Thing We Call Literature by Arthur Krystal.

When he does get more specific, things can get a little thorny. Is it true, for example, that great novels “rely more on accuracy of characterization than on the events that their characters react to”? I suppose it depends on what “rely more” and “accuracy” mean. Without further explanation, questions abound: Is Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment accurate? Does the novel rely more on characterization than events? How about in classical drama? The Iliad and The Odyssey? Pamela and Jane Eyre? (Micah Mattix)

Bustle examines what kind of person you are based on the books on your TBR (To Be Read) pile.

2. Your TBR Is... Stacked With Classics You've Been Meaning To Get To
If your TBR pile is filled with authors like Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Margaret Atwood, Charlotte Brontë, and Charles Dickens, odds are you've been meaning to get to these books ever since you ignored them in high school. You aren't the type of person who follows trends religiously, but rather, you follow your own path. You're a great listener and always give people a second chance which has always made you the peace-keeper in your friend group. (Alex Weiss)

San Antonio Current interviews writer David Shields and ask him

You're a New York Times Best Selling Author, so I’m sure you’re not too concerned with the canon, etc. But, do you ever get heckled by cantankerous old English professors who think you're a heretic and they just want everyone to read Jane Eyre? Like, the ones who think shit's getting edgy when they have their classes read The Stranger? People get really, really mad at me because they know I am right. (James Courtney)

My Newsdesk (Sweden) announces that publishing house Novellix is bringing Charlotte Brontë's Emma to the Swedish public.

I samband med att Novellix fyller fem år ger förlaget nu ut fem efterlängtade brittiska klassiker. Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield och D.H. Lawrence är fyra av namnen bakom vårt senaste novellsläpp. Det femte är Charlotte Brontë, vars 200-årsjubileum firas världen över i år. Emma – Ett fragment är en påbörjad roman som Brontë aldrig hann avsluta före sin död. Nu ger vi ut den så som hon lämnade den; i form av ett fragment, och tillgängliggör därmed berättelsen på svenska för första gången.
Brontë-utgåvan blir en bonus till ordinarie kvartett, där ytterligare en novell ges ut för första gången i svensk översättning, nämligen Charles Dickens Horatio Sparkins från 1836. (Translation)

Vanity Fair (Italy) interviews writer Jenny Offill and recalls the fact that,

Per Sembrava una felicità, Jenny Offill aveva stilato, sul suo sito, una lista (davvero bellissima) di libri-ispirazione. Gliene ho chiesto una anche per questo romanzo, Le cose che restano, uscito per la prima volta negli Stati Uniti nel 2000. Eccola:
«Il grande mare dei Sargassi di Jean Rhys, che racconta la storia di Antoinette, la moglie matta di Mr. Rochester di Jane Eyre, di cui questo libro è una specie di prequel. Un libro bello e selvaggio, che mi ha ispirato moltissimo. (Laura Pezzino) (Translation)

Enhanced Classics has a virtual tour of the Brontë Parsonage Museum's exhibition Charlotte Great and Small. ArtyPress discusses a Freudian perspective on Wuthering Heights. Skrivepulten (in Danish) reviews Jane Eyre. Juntando más letras (in Spanish) pots about Wide Sargasso Sea. Juli Liest  (in German) reviews Jane, Le Renard et moi by Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault.