Several sites review the West Yorkshire Playhouse production of Villette. The Stage gives it 4 out of 5 stars.The innovation here is to set Brontë’s enigmatic and profoundly lonely heroine, Lucy Snowe, adrift in a fictional near future world, reinventing her as an introverted clone figure who has survived a pandemic that killed her two identical sisters and has been set to work on an archaeological dig searching for a cure embedded in the DNA of the Lady of Villette.The Telegraph gives it 3 out of 5 stars:
With a sharp techno-digital visual style, and a poetic narrative style that switches between direct speech and what’s stirring in Lucy’s locked-in mind, it’s a bold, demanding and challenging reworking that will divide Brontë-philes right down the middle.
It might not be the full Brontë: it’s not easy to get a grip on Lucy’s head-spinning inner quest to dig deeper into her own stricken soul and find love. But there are enough fleeting glimpses of the original story to hold the thing together, with space for new versions of key characters to emerge in Mark Rosenblatt’s slickly staged production, each one given strong individuality by an excellent cast and with an elfin-like Laura Elsworthy delivering an edgy, angry, tour-de-force performance as Brontë’s haunted heroine.
Verdict
Bold, intense and unconventional interpretation of Charlotte Brontë’s novel, with a powerful central performance (Roger Foss)
The last time I checked, Charlotte Bronte’s proto-modernist 1853 novel Villette was not set on an archaeological dig somewhere in the future. Yet for a writer as radical as Bronte, there is something aptly daring in Linda Marshall-Griffiths’ new stage version, which drops the bonnets and other trappings of heritage theatre and recasts Brontë’s diffident narrator Lucy Snowe as a cloned survivor of a deadly virus tasked with discovering the remains of a nun called the Lady of Villette.The Guardian gives it 2 stars out 5:
Granted, it sounds a bit like something you might stumble across in a forsaken corner of the Edinburgh Fringe. But give it time, and Mark Rosenblatt’s production, part of the 200th anniversary Brontë season at WYP, makes a sort of sense. [...]
Here, as Laura Elsworthy’s insomniac, malnourished Lucy embarks on her project against Jess Curtis’s eerie set, where hi tech computers sit amid the dust and bones of an archeological dig, echoes from Brontë’s novel – and life – keep pushing through. It’s not just Lucy’s unresolved love affairs with Nana Amoo-Gottfried’s genial John and Philip Cairns’s endearingly hapless Paul; Catherine Cusack’s sinister, controlling Beck, who observes everything that happens on the dig via video surveillance, or the discovery of the nun’s crushed remains in the grounds. Rather, the dig becomes its own metaphor for Bronte’s themes of sexual and emotional repression, of loss (the unspecified trauma Lucy suffers is here spelt out as the deaths of her sisters) and of Lucy’s own, tumultuous inner journey from the depths of darkness towards the light.
Still, Elsworthy has her work cut out making Lucy work as a character. There is a certain skewed logic in making the emotionally locked down Lucy a clone. Yet while Elsworthy underlines Lucy’s self dissociation with jolting, mechanised speech patterns, at times it sounds as though she has swallowed a metronome. You sense, too, that Marshall-Griffiths has bitten off more than she can chew, her play ultimately defeated by Brontë’s extraordinary imagination. Yet Villette is an astonishing novel buried in the shadow of the much better known Jane Eyre. This play makes a fittingly bold stab at excavation. (Claire Allfree)
This is not a typical page-to-stage adaptation but rather a standalone play inspired by source material. You can admire the ambition but not always the execution, and it often feels as if Marshall Griffiths needed to get further away from the original rather than being tied to its Gothic coat-tails. This Lucy Snowe begins at such a fever pitch that there is nowhere else for her to go, and while Laura Elsworthy gradually makes you warm to her, she is given too little opportunity to expose Lucy’s yearning heart and really make us care for her future happiness. (Lyn Gardner)Entertainment Focus reviews it as well:
Initially, the play feels like it owes more to Nigel Kneale’s Quatermass and the novels of John Wyndham than to Brontë, but at the heart of this story is the tale of a woman’s identity in the shadow of her deceased sisters. Villette has an uneasy atmosphere; an underlying unrest, as if the soil should be left undisturbed and its history never exhumed. The play unearths the dirt of the land as one would tentatively dig into one’s unhappy past. [...]Impact takes a trip to Haworth and the Brontë Parsonage and rates the experience as an 8/10.
The central character is Lucy Rose [sic], passionately played by Laura Elsworth. The dialogue is alien, purposefully offbeat yet performed with a staccato rhythm that at times feels a touch exaggerated. There is anguish and fervour in the performance, however the writing doesn’t seem to offer further shades other than bouts of psychosis. There are a few softer moments, but on the whole, the character feels decidedly one note. Perhaps that was the intention; entrapped as a clone who has a fragmented, shared identity with her sisters. Either way, it makes for a sometimes wearying and unsympathetic protagonist. [...]
Villette showcases a vibrant cast. Philip Cairns is warm and engaging as Paul, Lucy’s unlikely love interest. Catherine Cusack is agreeably steely and distant as Beck, though is arguably a little underused. Nana Amoo-Gottfried is charged and youthfully upbeat as John, whilst Amelia Donkor gets to have the most fun as Gin, the fancy-free girl with a healthy work-life balance. [...]
Villette is a bold concept which is well realised on stage. It feels a little like a play which has a few too many ideas, with not all of them well served. As a reimagining, Villette is certainly daring and original, offering flashes of brilliance and the seeds of great ideas. It’s well worth seeing for its morbid ambience alone. (Samuel Payne)
For the incredibly inexpensive price of £6 for a student ticket there is no better way to spend your time in Haworth. This is made even better, as the ticket is valid for an entire year, which means there is no excuse not to visit again. It wouldn’t be a trip to a museum without a long browse in the gift shop; I had to resist major temptation to buy everything! I eventually settled on a postcard and a notebook featuring a drawing completed by Charlotte Bronte herself!We wholeheartedly agree with everything said, particularly in regards to the gift shop.
Not even the heavy rain and cold winds could ruin this day! If anything, the hostile weather made the experience of being inside the house all the more comforting and realistic, as it meant you could understand why the sisters spent so much time inside writing. What trip to Yorkshire would be complete without a short walk to a local café to sample the best tea and cake available, which also added to the quaint feel of the day’s outing!
Not being the types to let the weather stop us, we were crazy enough to make the short drive and then a further mile walk to the famous Bronte waterfall, where the sisters often went to search for inspiration and to enjoy the tranquility of nature. Whilst we didn’t quite get the same tranquility, due to the muddy hills and torrential rain, it was still a stunning place to visit.
Anyone who finds themselves in Yorkshire should definitely visit Haworth, a lovely little village with so much to offer in terms of both culture, and, of course, photo opportunities. However, Bronte addicts beware, as you may never leave the gift shop! (Lizzie Robinson)
Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and arguably the founder of modern feminism, was in her own age considered a trainwreck: She had several sexual partners and, as a result, a child out of wedlock. So, too, was Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre’s author had her own version of Rochester, but one who treated her terribly—and she was devastated by the breakup. (Megan Garber)So many wrong things in just one sentence! And, again, we seriously find it very hard to consider these two women trainwrecks.
Så är det också, förutom axplock ur bibeln, folksagor, folksånger och antika myter, några av 1800- och 1900-talets stora författare som sammanförs i intrigen: systrarna Brontë, JRR Tolkien och den torsdagsklubb som inte bara innehöll Tolkien utan också, bland andra, C S Lewis. Referenserna är många och emellanåt branta.Aftonbladet (Sweden) reviews it too:
Ibland kliver gestalter rakt ut ur fiktionen och tar plats i handlingen, ibland apostroferas de genom att, exempelvis, ge namn åt gator eller fastigheter. Här finns exempelvis – med en inte så liten blinkning till Emily Brontës klassiska hittebarn Heathcliff – Heath Street och Cliff Mansion. Här finns, med lika tydliga blinkningar till Tolkiens sagovärld, ”tant Alv” som i sitt ”Gondolfska hus” hyr ut en våning till ”Johnnie T”. I en scen stöter också romanens berättare, mekanikern Ned Shaw, på två märkliga monster. Ett av dem heter Ork. Och till och med titeln är en litterär lek. ”Blåst!” är nämligen det namn som gavs till den allra första svenska översättningen av Wuthering heights (Svindlande höjder). [...]
I romanens andra del blir konstruktionen tydligare. Här korsklipper Liffner mellan 2000-tal, 1960-tal och Brontës senare 1800-tal. Av barnen finns bara Charlotte kvar. Och i vår samtid dechiffrerar de medelålders väninnorna Mags och George arkeologiska fältrapporter och mystiska lösblad samtidigt som Charlotte Brontë söker ett förlorat (stulet) manuskript.
Vem som lever och vem som dör är inte alldels uppenbart. Istället påminner Liffner om det motstånd som finns i fantasin. Och det eviga liv. (Ingrid Bosseldal) (Translation)
Och Liffner har trängt sig in i den världen inte bara med fantasi utan också genom en rejäl portion fantasy. Det här är visserligen ingen tungläst historia men så komplex för att inte säga snårig, att jag aldrig lyckas reda ut alla trådar, som författaren spinner fram och tillbaka mellan olika tidsplan och drömda eller levande människor. I ett av de moderna tidsplanen konstateras på ett ställe, att ”de här fyra ungarna skrev som tokiga hela livet. De lekte och levde och andades bara genom sina fantasier om påhittade land och språk och ändlösa krig och ändå finns det nästan inget kvar av dem i bokform. Bara några prydligt tillrättalagda romaner, noga ansade för att passa tidens litterära mode”.The Atlantic reviews Andrea Arnold's American Honey and is somewhat reminded of her Wuthering Heights adaptation.
Det tycks vara detta faktum, som triggat i gång Eva-Maria Liffners egen fantasi, det vill säga den fantasivärld, Gondal, som syskonen Brontë, Charlotte, Emily, Anne och Branwell, skapade och djupt levde sig in i, men som inte lämnat spår i de tre systrarnas romaner – Branwell var förmodligen lika skrivbegåvad men publicerade ingenting och var på väg att supa ihjäl sig, när han dog i lungsot samma år som Emily.
Men! Kanske det ändå fanns en roman av hans hand om just Gondal, eller om det kanske handlar om en försvunnen andra roman av Emily (många har fantiserat om vad hon skulle ha kunnat åstadkomma mer än mästerverket Svindlande höjder). Vi får följa hur detta eventuella manuskript dyker upp i skyttegravarna vid Ypern under första världskriget och senare i källardjupen under Bodleian library i Oxford. Det forskas fram och tillbaka mellan tidsplanen, som även omfattar slutet av 1960-talet samt nutid. (Lennart Bromander) (Translation)
Arnold is a British director who excels at uncompromising storytelling. Her protagonist Star has something in common with Mia, the isolated, impoverished teenager in her 2009 film Fish Tank, and even with the aloof, angry Heathcliff of her 2011 adaptation of Wuthering Heights. (David Sims)While Zap2it looks at the latest adaptation of Poldark and thinks that,
What makes “Poldark” so clever, and such a viable commodity, is the way it simultaneously embraces and overcomes all these Cornish tropes. In the same way that a Bronte adaptation can’t be too wry and ironic, nor too hysterical or intense, the job with “Poldark” is to translate Graham’s work — with all the topical style and hyper-emotional trends — into something we can digest, experiencing it authentically rather than ironically. It’s the soap opera argument made real, and so expertly that it’s easy to forget that silly fight altogether. (Ann Foster)Howl and Echoes lists '6 Songs Inspired by Books' and Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights is obviously there.
Wuthering Heights by Kate BushPopMatters reviews the book The Kate Inside by Guido Harari:
Perhaps one of the best known literary adaptations in music, Kate Bush’s dramatic (and shrill) classic is brimful with the tragedy of Emily Brontë’s only novel. First published in 1847 under the pseudonym “Ellis Bell”, the doomed love of Cathy and Heathcliff has been a schoolroom staple of English Lit classes for decades. A prime favourite for TV adaptations, Bush’s version is perhaps the best known song to be inspired by Wuthering Heights.
Recorded in 1978, the lyrics were actually written by Bush aged just 18. Inspired by just ten minutes of a BBC mini-adaptation that aired on 1967 television, she also discovered that she shared her birthday with Emily Brontë (July 30). Singing as the ghost of Cathy, calling to Heathcliff from the bleak moors – and from beyond the grave – the track stayed at number one in the British charts for four weeks.
Bush actually fought hard with record label EMI to have Wuthering Heights released as the lead single for her album, The Kick Inside. A rare victory for a young artist, who was definitely more savvy than her floaty dresses and mystical demeanour might have indicated to unsuspecting label execs. (Susie Garrard)
Thus, there are perhaps two ways to see Kate Bush: as postmodern art-pop pariah haunted by a Faustian bargain with fame, or perhaps more cynically, as media strategy invested in that very bargain. The first Bush is a double-edged sword capable of gesticulating through the ether as both performer and performance: at one side, the very down to earth, thoughtful, charming, discreet, and authentic, individual with an endless reserve of poetic and musical insight within her; at the other side, the myriad artistic products of hocus pocus and make-believe, like wailing in the wind Cathy of Wuthering Heights, Babooshka, and all the Running Up That Hill stuff. [...]If you have been reading BrontëBlog for a few years you will know that there is a columnist that resurfaces from time to time with '(c)rude' Brontë references: Tanya Gold. She reviews a place in London's Strand called Bronte (for Lord Nelson) for The Spectator.
Cathy of Wuthering Heights was inspired not by the Brontë novel but by a TV adaptation of it. (Pietro de Simone)
I hoped that Bronte would be filled with Victorian writers licking ink off their fingers and bitching about Mrs Gaskell being a third-rate hack; but it is not to be. (Do not think I am vulgar. My description is accurate. Wuthering Heights is a rude novel, and Jane Eyre is worse. St John Rivers, its Christian Grey, is surely a Spectator subscriber). [...]Pure (Tanya) gold.
It is named for Horatio Nelson, the Duke of Bronte. His title, it is believed, was borrowed by Patrick Brunty, the Irish blacksmith’s apprentice who educated himself and came to England to father a literary dynasty by mistake. Patrick was a skilled public relations man and curate; he added a stylish umlaut. The Brontës, of course, have their own homage restaurant in Haworth. It is called the Bronte Balti House, and it features in the Daily Telegraph’s Ten of the Worst Days out in Britain. I thought the Bronte Balti House was OK when I covered the Brontë Death Cult for the Guardian, but I was keen to escape the Parsonage of Passive Aggression and Death, and nowhere else was open. The Brontë Death Cult, which was founded by Mrs Gaskell in an oblivious act of jealousy, is very passive-aggressive, and its shrine is the parsonage, a house that looks like a dead body. What do you call a woman of humble origins who just happens to be a genius when you are not? A sickly moor hag, or witch. I cannot blame Mrs Gaskell for the Bronte Balti; but she would like it. She would love to imprison Charlotte’s memory inside a crap curry house near Bradford, with naan bread: I’ve got you now, corpse!
So Bronte is named for a man no one calls Bronte. It could have been called Nelson, decorated with eye patches and plastic parrots, like a Padshow hell shack; or it could have been called Gaskell, an angry and flouncy tearoom that wrote bad novels and one marvellous, vicious and dishonest biography called The Life of Charlotte Brontë; or it could have been called — and this is my wish — Brunty: Pens, Sex and Potatoes.
For this year’s Dining Guide, we wanted to figure out a question as old as the University itself — how do you impress a date? Instead of giving you our opinion — this Culture Editor once invited a woman to his first-year dorm to watch “Jane Eyre,” so he’s disqualifying himself — we wanted to hear from you. (Kevin Lynch)Vanitatis (Spain) is reminded of Jane Eyre by the 'pullover you won't be taking off this autumn'. Papel en blanco (in Spanish) reviews Jane, le renard et moi. AnneBrontë.org marked Elizabeth Gaskell's 206th birthday yesterday with a post about her.
Parsonage Unwrapped: Charlotte and Her Travels
September 30th at 07:30PM
Brontë Parsonage Museum
Charlotte was the most well-travelled of the Brontës, visiting Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Belgium. September's Parsonage Unwrapped event will uncover some of the stories of her travels, including her five trips to the Great Exhibition.
The Brontë Cabinet
by Deborah Lutz and Christine Nelson
Friday, September 30, 6:30 pm
Morgan Library & Museum
From portable writing desks to personal garments to tiny manuscripts written in minuscule handwriting, the Brontës left behind countless material traces of their lives and work. What stories do these objects tell, and what do they withhold? Join us for a presentation and conversation with Deborah Lutz, scholar and author of the The Brontë Cabinet: Three Lives in Nine Objects and Christine Nelson, Drue Heinz Curator of Literary and Historical Manuscripts at the Morgan.
The exhibition Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will will be open at 5:30 pm for program attendees.
A new student production of Christine Calvit's Jane Eyre adaptation is being performed at the University of Cedarville, Ohio:Jane Eyre
By: Christina Colvit, adapted from the novel by Charlotte Brontë
Director: Dr. Diane Conrad Merchant
Performance Times: September 29 – October 9, 2016
This new adaptation of the beloved Gothic novel imaginatively incorporates haunting visual images, dreamlike memories and innovative staging. Orphaned Jane Eyre overcomes her lonely and abusive childhood to become an accomplished governess for Mr. Rochester’s ward at mysterious Thornfield, a place with dark and terrifying secrets. Her psychological journey allows her to triumph over the oppression of the Victorian era, in a script that Chicago Magazine called “a tide of loving and sure storytelling that treats its audience with reverence and respect.”
Very belatedly (it happened in May, but somehow escaped our radar), we report the sad news of the death of Diane Long Hoeveler (1949-2016), Professor of English at Marquette University and Brontë scholar.The Not-so New Gothic: Charlotte Brontë’s Juvenilia and the Gothic Tradition in Charlotte Brontë from the Beginnings: New Essays from the Juvenilia to the Major Works, Ed. Judith Pike and Lucy Morrison, Routledge (to appear in October 2016)
Dreaming of the Other: The Brontë Novels and Gothic Residue. In 21st META British Novelists Conference: The Brontë Sisters and Their Work Proceedings (2013) (not yet published). She was the keynote speaker in the conference.
“Theories of Creativity and the Saga of Charlotte Brontë.” In Autopoetica: Representations of the Creative Process in Nineteenth-Century British and American Fiction. Ed. Darby Lewes. Lanham, MD: Lexington/Rowman and Littlefield, 2006. Pp. 187-94.
“Teaching Wuthering Heights as Fantasy, Trauma, and Dream Work.” In Approaches to Teaching ‘Wuthering Heights.’ Ed. Sue Lonoff and Terri Hasseler. New York: MLA, 2006. Pp. 96-103.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Authoritative text with notes, Introduction, and collected critical essays, including her “Wuthering Heights and Gothic Feminism,”, Houghton Mifflin, 2001
Gothic Feminism: The Professionalization of Gender from Charlotte Smith to the Brontës. University Park: Penn State Press, 1998.
Charlotte Brontë. New York: Macmillan/Twayne Publications, 1997. (Coauthor with Lisa Jadwin). She wrote the chapters on The Professor, Shirley, Brontë’s poetry and letters, and the second half of the Biography chapter.
Approaches to Teaching Brontë’s ‘Jane Eyre.’ New York: Modern Language Association, 1993. (Contributing Coeditor with Beth Lau). Article: Jane Eyre Through the Body: Food, Sex, Discipline.
With a rock musical about the Brontë sisters and a Charlotte Brontë story set in the 22nd Century, a theatre in Yorkshire is trying to change the way we view the famous literary family.
"I'm not that interested in costume drama," says James Brining, artistic director of the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, discussing the theatre's Brontë season.
You might think being interested in costume drama would be an essential requirement for putting on a season dedicated to the Brontë sisters, whose stage and screen adaptations are rarely without a full set of bodices and bonnets.
But Brining says he wants to "look at the Brontës from as many different perspectives as possible" to explore what they and their stories mean today.
So, in that spirit, a futuristic stage adaptation of Charlotte's final novel Villette catapults the action from 1853 to circa 2216, with the heroine Lucy Snowe depicted as a clone. [...]
"It is about a woman who is invisible," says writer Linda Marshall Griffiths, who has adapted it for the stage.
"A Victorian, unmarried woman, who is thought to be useless in society, and yet she had this vibrant imagination, a fierce mind and an extraordinary voice. And that seemed to be a story that's worth telling now."
In the new West Yorkshire Playhouse version, Lucy is no longer an unassuming Victorian woman - she is a clone who has survived a viral pandemic.
"We could have done bonnets," Marshall Griffiths says. "But when you're adapting or reimagining something, it's worth thinking about how this book can speak to us. Sometimes if you jump into the future it can speak back to us about who we are now."
On Thursday, the West Yorkshire Playhouse will host a debate about which is Charlotte's greatest work - Villette or her more famous debut novel Jane Eyre. Marshall Griffiths, unsurprisingly, votes Villette.
"I think Jane Eyre is all there in Villette, but there's no part of her heart or guts that aren't in Villette," she says. "Also the extraordinary language - it's really potent, deep, poetic, really brilliant stuff.
"It's a harder read but you've got to stick with it. It's such a deep book and there's so much that it's so rich and surprising. It makes my hair stand up when I read it sometimes. It's electrifying." [...]
The Brontë musical, titled Wasted, is a very different sort of show - but it too tackles Charlotte's reaction to the deaths of her siblings.
Wasted will be set in the 19th Century, will tell the story of the family themselves - and will feature actors in bonnets. But it is far from a traditional period retelling.
One song sees Charlotte howling over a grungy guitar: "Why go on writing words in books when the truth is - everybody dies?"
The music is composed by Carl Miller and Christopher Ash, founding member of improvised musical Showstopper!.
"They had really quite difficult lives and there's a lot of strife and struggle going on in their story," Ash says. "The first song that we wrote was called Everybody Dies for Charlotte because she outlives the other three. All of this pain - that's a place to sing rock from." [...]
The show's musical style has an "experimental edge" in an attempt to do justice to the sisters' groundbreaking work, he adds.
"There's straight rock but also really extreme grindcore, synth-pop and jazz-rock with interesting time signatures.
"There are some nods to more traditional musical theatre things, but when people come and see it, we really want them to feel like they're at some level at a gig. We really want to mix those worlds."
Fans of gentle costume drama have been warned.
Villette is at the West Yorkshire Playhouse until 15 October. Wasted is on from 20-22 October. (Ian Youngs)
Coun Turner said; “Most people wanted to keep all of the museums, but the overall survey responses did not suggest an alternative to the three sites we have identified.” The Friends of Red House Museum have campaigned against its closure. Nearly 2,000 people put their name to a petition to keep it open, and the friends group submitted a report which gave 20 reasons why the site should not shut. Chairwoman Jacqueline Ryder said: “We were always hopeful that the council would recognise the importance of Red House not just in North Kirklees, but for Yorkshire and, with the Brontë connection, internationally as well.”
the brooding intensity of a Brontë hero (Dany Margolies)
if he is Mr Rochester and Heathcliff, Darcy and Don Juan, all rolled into one flawed but irresistible package. (Marcus Field)
Three alerts for today, September 29:NCPA Drama Jane Eyre
September 29-October 06, 2016
The silent piano, closed suitcase...under the spotlight, Jane Eyre, in a long grey skirt, bursts into the still life-like stage. In the misty fog, standing outside the Thornfield manor gate, Jane Eyre unintentionally starts the fate engine of the people in this old manor.
In June 2009, Jane Eyre pioneered by NCPA was staged for the first time, and this was also the first interpretation of Charlotte Brontë's classical novel of the same name on the stage of drama in China. Wang Xiaoying and Yu Rongjun served as the director and the writer respectively. With undiluted poetic language and excellent stage effect, thousands of audiences were immersed into the amazing 135-minute play, and quickly identified with the characters of the play.
Ever since its debut in 2009, this drama version of Jane Eyre has been performed many times at NCPA and other theatres and has toured in such cities as Shanghai, Chongqing, Ningbo, Hangzhou and Fuzhou, with the lead female character Jane Eyre performed by Yuan Quan, Chen Shu and Ju Jie.
To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the author of Jane Eyre, the English writer Charlotte Brontë, NCPA will once again stage the drama version of Jane Eyre, with famous Chinese actors Yuan Quan and Wang Luoyong playing the leading roles. Meanwhile, NCPA Drama Ensemble will also join this production of Jane Eyre.
Credits
Production: National Centre for the Performing Arts
Co-produced by National Centre for the Performing Arts, National Theatre of China
Presenter: National Theatre of China, National Centre for the Performing Arts
Playwright: Yu Rongjun
Director: Wang Xiaoying
Stage Design: Liu Kedong
Lighting Design: Xing Xin
Costume Design: Gai Yan
Make-up Design: Zhao He
Leading Cast: Yuan Quan, Wang Luoyong
2. At the Mississippi Arts School in Brookhaven, MS:Jane EyreMore information on the production in The Daily Leader
Adapted by Polly Teale
Thu, Sep 29, 2016 - Sat, Oct 1, 2016
7:00 pm
Enochs Black Box Theater
335 W. Monticello St.
Brookhaven, Mississippi
This gothic drama about love between a governess and her employer explores class boundaries against the background of a repressive Victorian society.
Jane Eyre vs Villette Debate
Thu 29 Sep 1606:00 PM
Celebrated poet and author Blake Morrison, and acclaimed novelist and writer, Sarah Perry will advocate for Jane Eyre. They will be countered by Salley Vickers, author of several bestselling novels, and Ruth Robbins, Professor of Victorian Literature at Leeds Beckett University, speaking for Villette. The debate will hosted by local broadcaster and journalist, Yvette Huddleston.
Councillors will be asked to agree the sell-off of some of Kirklees museums.Closing down a museum is a 'radical transformation' indeed! If you haven't done so yet, click here to sign our petition.
A plan to create a new Huddersfield Museum and Art Gallery looks set to move forward.
But three museums may close as Kirklees aims to cut £531,000 from the £1m museums budget.
The controversial plan includes axing Tolson Museum along with Dewsbury Museum in Crow Nest Park and Red House Museum at Gomersal – a showcase venue for Kirklees’ links with Charlotte Brontë.
At a meeting on Monday, Kirklees Council’s Cabinet members will be asked to give authority to the council’s chief executive to invite expressions of interest in the sites and buildings that are no longer required.
Cabinet Member for Creative Kirklees, Clr Graham Turner, said that the proposals had been drawn up following consultation with staff and the public.
He said: “Obviously the majority of people wanted to keep all the museums.
“During our budget consultation in January, 55% of people wanted the collections where they are, but 45% felt we should display exhibitions in community and business venues.
“We have responded to this in the vision by proposing a mix of site based activities and other opportunities.
“It is clear that many residents love and value the buildings we have, but if we do not close any of the sites it will be impossible to achieve the savings we need to make.
“With a constantly diminishing budget, we have to change the cultural offer. But I believe the proposed changes will ensure that we can deliver a service for the residents of Kirklees that tells our story in a different and more up to date way.
“Changing lifestyles and increasing culture and leisure choices mean that the museum and galleries service needs to radically transform if it is to be relevant and resilient in the 21st century and make an impact on the district’s priorities.
“It is vital that Kirklees continues to support a strong cultural offer.” (Nick Lavigueur)
We popped into rehearsals for Villette at West Yorkshire Playhouse to chat to director Mark Rosenblatt and find out more about the radical reimagining of Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre.Selected Shorts features Reader, I Married Him.
On the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë's birth, this new adaptation by Yorkshire writer Linda Marshall-Griffiths celebrates her unique genius. (Ben Hewis)
Guest host Cynthia Nixon presents a celebration of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.Click here to listen to the podcast.
To mark the 200th anniversary of the classic novel, the writer Tracy Chevalier was approached to create an anthology, inviting contemporary writers to pen stories inspired by it. The result was Reader, I Married Him: Stories Inspired by Jane Eyre. We invited Chevalier and some of her authors to a special evening at Symphony Space.
On this program, you’ll hear Tony Award winner Joanna Gleason (“Into the Woods”) read from the original. Then, a rebuttal from Rochester, in Salley Vickers’ “Reader, She Married Me.” Vickers’ novels include Miss Garnet’s Angel, Mr. Golightly’s Holiday, and The Cleaner of Chartres. Reader Chris Sarandon’s films include “Dog Day Afternoon,” “The Princess Bride,” and “Fright Night.” On television he’s appeared in “Orange is the New Black,” “The Good Wife,” and “Law & Order: SVU,” among other shows.
Our final story is by Audrey Niffenegger, who chose to look at an earlier period in Jane Eyre’s difficult life: her time at the orphanage. But typically for the author of fantasy-tinged novels The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, and a favorite story of ours, “The Night Bookmobile,” this Jane has been transported to a dystopian world that is not Eyre’s London. “The Orphan Exchange,” is read by Tovah Feldshuh, whose long career on stage, film and television includes roles in “Golda’s Balcony” and “Yentl,” “Holocaust” and “Law & Order,” and most recently “The Walking Dead.”
Charlotte Brontë’s Edward Rochester is a troubled, complex character, burning with a sense of pain and melancholia at his deranged wife’s condition, and his duty to tend to her lunacy by cocooning her in the attic of his manor.Virtue Online remarks on the fact that
This is, of course, the main point of contention between those who see Rochester as a sympathetic Samaritan and those who consider him a cruel captor. (Olivia Nichole Kittle) (Read more)
Victorian literature does not shy away from exploring the tension between representation and reality. Charles Dickens, Elisabeth Gaskell, and the Brontë sisters, in particular, focus on the ways in which the middle-class family could be troubled or unhappy or broken. (Jules Gomes)A.V. Club reviews Meat Cake Bible by Dame Darcy.
What is Meat Cake about? Women, mostly, and girls, who inhabit a claustrophobic neo-Victorian landscape that seems to have been constructed out of jumbled memories of a kid stuck home with a fever for a week and binging on the Brontë sisters. (In 2006 Darcy illustrated an edition of Jane Eyre, surely one of the most perfect such pairings imaginable.) (Tim O’Neil)This list of '11 Desk Accessories Every Book-Lover Needs In Their Working Space' compiled by Bustle is highly tempting. One of the items has a direct Jane Eyre reference:
7. A Literary CandleStraits Times reviews the music album Pigeonheart by DM Stith and finds that,
Who doesn't want their room to smell like their favorite book? Now your very own desk can have the scent of Sherlock's study, Jane Eyre's rose garden, or Alice's mad tea party. These soy candles are based on locations in literary classics, and they're perfect for creating a relaxed work atmosphere.
Literary Candles, $16.00, Uncommon Goods (Charlotte Ahlin)
Each song usually begins quietly, without fanfare, before it unfurls its myriad shades.Many sites date the publication of Jane Eyre as the 26th September 1847 but the actual date is 16th October. BookRiot celebrates the 169th anniversary of its publication on the wrong date but the selection of '16 beautiful Jane Eyre book covers' is truly lovely regardless.
"What would I do with your love right now/forehead to the door, keep you pounding outside," begins Sawtooth, with him babbling like a silly, lovelorn Heathcliff over incongruously bouncy disco beats. (Yeow Kai Chai)
The Afflicted Imagination’: Nostalgia and Homesickness in the Writing of Emily Brontë
by James Thomas Quinnell
Doctoral thesis, Durham University, 2016
This thesis discusses homesickness and nostalgia as conditions that ‘afflict’ to productive ends the writing of Emily Brontë. Homesickness and nostalgia are situated as impelling both Brontë’s poetry and Wuthering Heights. To elucidate these states, close attention is paid to Emily Brontë’s poetry as well as Wuthering Heights, in the belief that the poetry repays detailed examination of a kind it rarely receives (even fine work by critics such as Janet Gezari tend not to scrutinise the poetry as attentively as it deserves) and that the novel benefits from being related to the poetry. Building on the work of Irene Tayler and others, this thesis views Brontë as a post-Romantic, and particularly post-Wordsworthian, poet. Much of her writing is presented as engaging in dialogue with the concerns in Wordsworth’s poetry, especially his ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood’; her poetry and prose eschew Wordsworth’s ‘simple creed’ and explore ‘obstinate questionings’. In so doing, they follow his own lead; Brontë brings out how complex the Romantics are.
Chapter one focuses on the idea of restlessness as stirring a search for home. Chapters two and three, on Catholicism and Irishness respectively reflect on ways in which Emily Brontë used contemporary national debates in exploring imaginatively states of homesickness and nostalgia. The conceiving of another time and place to find a home in these chapters is developed in chapter four. This chapter considers Brontë’s internalisation of a home in her imaginative world of Gondal and argues for Gondal’s relevance. An imaginative home formed in childhood leads into chapter five which discusses Emily Brontë’s presentation of childhood; the chapter contends that Brontë imagines the child as lost and homesick, and rejects any ‘simple creed’ of childhood. Chapter six, which starts with the abandoned child in Wuthering Heights, focuses on the the novel as stirring a longing for home. The inability to find home, and particularly the rejection of heaven as a home, leads into a discussion of the ghostly as an expression of homesickness in the final chapter.
A museum with close links to the Brontës is set to close next month under key proposals to restructure museums and galleries in Kirklees.If you haven't signed our petition yet, please do so.
Red House Museum in Gomersal is one of two museums that are recommended for closure as Kirklees Council centres on retaining three museum venues as part of its new vision for culture in the district. [...]
But it is the historic Red House, where Charlotte Brontë was a frequent visitor, immortalising the house in her second novel, Shirley, as well as Dewsbury Museum that are set for closure.
John Thirwell, chairman of the Brontë Society, said: "The Brontë Society is concerned and saddened to learn of the likely closure of Red House in Gomersal.
"However, we look forward to continuing our conversations with Kirklees Council to explore how the Brontës’ links with this historic building and the local community are not lost."
Local councillor David Hall (Con, Liversedge and Gomersal), leader of the Conservative group on the council, said he was disappointed at the recommendations.
“I would have hoped that the council could have come up with some innovative ways of keeping this facility open,” he said.
“Maybe teaming the site management with the public hall next door which itself is under threat.
“My fear is that if the museum closes it will fall into ruin unless a buyer is found imminently, and that would be a tragedy for Gomersal and for Kirklees.”
If Cabinet members agree to the proposals, expressions of interest will be invited for those museums that are no longer required. Collections will also be transferred to other museum buildings or to a storage facility. [...]
It is expected that Red House and Dewsbury Museum will stay open until at least the end of next month. (Jo Winrow)
Impact Arts goes rogue this month, featuring a play rather than a book for this edition of Book Of The Month. What better way to celebrate all things Brontë than sinking your teeth into a work whose brilliance was inspired by Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre? A must have on the bookshelf of any Brontë lover.CCTV features the Chinese stage production of Jane Eyre which is making a comeback at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing on Thursday.
After Mrs Rochester is a play that ties Brontë, Rhys and Teale together, showing the life of Jean Rhys and her true connections to the original Jane Eyre character, Bertha Mason. Set in one room in the Devon countryside, Teale creates her own ‘madwoman in the attic’ who refuses to open the door to the rest of the world. In two acts, Rhys’ life is panned out in front of us… Or is it Bertha’s? [...]
The play isn’t long, but it won’t let you put it down when you read it. The pace is quick, flitting between the past and present of Rhys’ life, a pleasure for any Jane Eyre or Wide Sargasso Sea fan. It would be recommended to read both texts before tackling Teale, not for understanding, but simply to gain a larger insight into the references made to the two fantastic pieces of literature. Teale, herself, has created an incredible adaptation that will leave you wanting more.
Easily 10/10, alongside women and madness literature such as Sargasso and The Yellow Wallpaper. (Jessica Rushton)
Jane Eyre -- a name that resonates in the hearts and minds of countless women young and old. It also represents a love story which overcomes all obstacles of time and social class.Bustle has selected '10 Scary Stories For People Who Don't Like Horror' and one of them is
The Chinese production of Charlotte Brontë’s much adored classic has won over audiences across the country in all 100 showings. It is now returning to Beijing's NCPA to the delight of Chinese fans.
"The beauty of theater art is that every time we make a new rendition of a play, we always find something new, whether it's the lines, the actors' performances. Unlike movies, you don't get the chance to make several takes, but you could always revisit the play and try to perfect it," said Wang Xiaoying, director of "Jane Eyre". [...]
Actress Yuan Quan, who played Jane Eyre in the play's debut in 2009, returns to the stage as the heroine once again.
"I’m as devoted to the role as ever. It’s my most adored role. It accompanied me growing up. Even after all these years, I can still find a spiritual nourishment from the role. It's as if I have gained some positive energy. If a play can give one actress that feeling, it must contain strength from faith alone," Yuan said.
And Wang Luoyong, who broke a western dominance on Broadway, is cast as the enigmatic master of Thornfield Hall, Edward Rochester.
He says his early days on Broadway helps him find the inner rage of Rochester.
The actors and actresses will take audiences through a thrilling, emotional journey at the NCPA from September 29th til October 6th.
2. Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontëSlant Magazine refers to Andrea Arnold's take on the novel in passing:
A lot of people forget that Wuthering Heights has an actual ghost in it. Sure, Catherine's ghost could easily be a figment of Lockwood's imagination... but leaving it vague actually makes it even spookier. Plus, Heathcliff's whole domestic set up is pretty creepy. Wuthering Heights definitely doesn't belong in the horror section, but it is a Gothic novel with plenty of eerie (but not scary) elements to it. (Charlotte Ahlin)
Arnold’s prior work has been high-concept while too direct in its camera language to be considered structuralist, the lens typically hovering within inches of actors’ faces—inviting moviegoers to consider the characters’ perspectives, using the screen as a sharp line of separation. Her 2011 adaptation of Emily Brontë‘s Wuthering Heights made Heathcliff both black and essentially mute, anchoring emotional presence, if not the entire frame itself, with her leading man while inviting the viewer to quietly weigh Heathcliff’s sensory impressions against their own. (Steve Macfarlane)MangiaLibri (Italy) reviews Il pensiero religioso di una poetessa inglese del secolo XIX. Emilia Giovanna Brontë by Giorgina Sonnino, originally published in 1904.
Intorno al 1850 i moti spirituali e culturali di Haworth (West Yorkshire) assumono un semplice e infinito carattere. Sono soprattutto i Brontë ad attrarre l’interesse generale: e non solo del villaggio, ma di ogni persona colta, in modo speciale dei posteri e di non pochi animi eletti. Delle Brontë della contea, “Carlotta è la più conosciuta, sotto lo pseudonimo di romanziera, Currer Bell. Ma Emilia è la figura di gran lunga più originale”. Il cuore di Emily (1818-1848), difatti, alias Ellis Bell, “donna poeta” e autrice di uno dei più grandi e famosi romanzi del secolo XIX, Wuthering Heights, è tutto rivolto alla natura e ai più intimi affetti: sicché, in questa necessità di pensiero, non troviamo la sola educazione, ma l’abito di tutta una vita, “modestissima e solitaria, […] libera e spontanea”. Non per niente il fascino della poetessa si riverbera su ogni gesto e dentro ogni parola, e risente delle grandi forze, dell’ambiente e dell’anima profonda dei moors in cui vive. “La casa essendo sull’orlo dell’altipiano, prospettava sui moors. In quelli vagavano i bambini; e quelli con la loro severa poesia educavano, più che i libri, l’animo di Emilia”... (Amalia Lauritano) (Translation)The pronunciation of Brontë is briefly touched upon by Dagens Nyheter (Sweden). Journey to Ambeth tells about a visit to the George Hotel in Hathersage, which we wouldn't go as far as describing as 'once a favourite haunt of Charlotte Bronte' though. Shoshi's Book Blog and Książki Moni (in Polish) both post about Wuthering Heights, A Quirky Kook shares pictures from a recent walk on Haworth moor.
The Dangerous to Know theatre company presents their new production, an adaptation of Shirley in Dewsbury:Dangerous to Know presents
Shirley
27/09/2016
Doors @ 7 to begin at 7.30
The Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Woodkirk, Dewsbury Rd, Leeds WF12 7JL
Shirley is an unapologetic, all-guns-blazing conception of Charlotte Brontë’s 1849 novel of the same name.
Set during the perfect storm of British workforce rebellion and violent international unrest, the piece reveals that the politics of work, war and love will not change while we are short of powerful, unified and positive calls to action. An eerie pre-echo of the UK’s current zeitgeist, this adaptation moulds Brontë’s hyperactive, multilinear plot into a slick, eloquent but vociferous appeal for reason and alliance.
This performance will be script in hand – the perfect opportunity to see Dangerous To Know’s latest work-in-progress!
Although social issues aren’t excluded from French’s first two novels—both involve schemes to raze a rare old property in order to build a profitable new one—they cluster at the periphery of a crisis with deeper roots. The images and language are archetypal, the stuff of ballads (“And who is it waiting on the riverbank . . .”) and fairy tales (Cassie imagines sewing herself and Lexie “together at the edges with my own hands,” like Wendy reattaching Peter Pan’s shadow). This is the terrain of the gothic, a fictional mode that, at its best (“Jane Eyre,” the novels and stories of Shirley Jackson), scrutinizes the boundary between the inner self and the outer world and finds it permeable. Identity is its abiding theme, and the house, a proxy for the psyche, is its organizing motif. (Laura Miller)This columnist from The Chronicle of Higher Education talks about his early ambitions:
Like most would-be academics, I had dreams of a library book with my name on it. A book with a colon in the title and footnotes at the back. A book lodged in some quiet corner of a university library, to be discovered generations hence by an earnest graduate student researching the influence of intelligent design on Charles Darwin, and/or the poetry of Emily Brontë (my scholarly interests were somewhat in flux.)Aftenposten (Norway) tells of the conclusion drawn by a professor after reading Claire Harman's biography of Charlotte Brontë.
Alas, it was not to be. (Noah Berlatsky)
Marianne Egeland, professor i litteraturvitenskap ved Universitetet i Oslo, understreker at virkelighetslitteratur slett ikke er noe nytt fenomen.An alert from the New Bern-Craven County Public Library via New Bern Sun Journal:
– Selv satt jeg i sommer og leste en biografi om den engelske dikteren Charlotte Brontë i forbindelse med 200-årsjubileet for hennes fødsel. Det viser seg at mye av det hun skriver om, har hendt. (Halvor Hegtun and Kristin Jonassen Nordby) (Translation)
Let’s Talk About It is scheduled at 7 p.m. for a discussion of the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. The session will be led by visiting scholar Helena Feder from East Carolina University. (Charlie Hall)The Silver Petticoat Review posts about Jane Eyre 2006 on its tenth anniversary (!!). AnneBrontë.org discusses Anne Brontë's trip to the opera.
Some new student study guides of Brontë novels:Study and Revise for GCSE: Jane Eyre
Mike Jones
Hodder Education
ISBN: 9781471853609
Published: 27/05/2016
Enable students to achieve their best grade in GCSE English Literature with this year-round course companion; designed to instil in-depth textual understanding as students read, analyse and revise Jane Eyre throughout the course.
This Study and Revise guide:
- Increases students' knowledge of Jane Eyre as they progress through the detailed commentary and contextual information written by experienced teachers and examiners.
- Develops understanding of plot, characterisation, themes and language, equipping students with a rich bank of textual examples to enhance their exam responses.
- Builds critical and analytical skills through challenging, thought-provoking questions that encourage students to form their own personal responses to the text. (...)
Study and Revise for AS/A-level: Wuthering Heights
Andrew Green
Hodder Education
ISBN: 9781471854286
Published: 27/05/2016
Extent: 112 pages
The New York Post posts about Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear . . . and Why by Sady Doyle:Luckily, not every trainwreck is permanently shattered. In 1844, Charlotte Brontë melted down after she was ghosted by the object of her affections. As a young woman, she spent her childhood making up stories with her sisters, but she understood that her gender made the dream of a literary career impossible. Then she met Monsieur Constantin Heger, the intimidating, married proprietor of a girls school in Belgium where both Charlotte and Emily Brontë worked as teachers.The Straits Times (Singapore) presents the novel The Ornatrix by Kate Howard:
Heger took a professorial interest in Charlotte, encouraging her writing, lending her books to read and giving her special assignments. From Brontë’s point of view, at least, the two developed a passionate, enduring connection (it’s unclear if it was ever consummated, or even really reciprocated). Either way, Heger’s wife was not particularly fond of her husband’s adoring
protégé, and when Brontë left her job at the school, Heger cut off contact.
Brontë was heartbroken and wrote him letter after letter, each one more hysterical than the next. However, a few years later she bounced back and retaliated, Taylor Swift style. She wrote a series of novels about young women’s affairs with cold, older men — under a male pseudonym at first — including “Jane Eyre.” (Rachelle Bergstein)
She also works in the university's trade union. Her long list of literary influences is heavily British, including the Brontë sisters, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy. (Lee Jian Xuan)The Derbyshire Times tells the story of Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall and also adds how
The hall itself has been the setting for films such as Jane Eyre, The Princess Bride and Pride and Prejudice, so you may well spot this lovely place in many a starring role.#amReading recommends Gothic novels if you like the Brontë Sisters. The list begins with a novel of Anne Brontë, who happens to be a Brontë sister too:
1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne BrontëA reader of the Portland Press Reader mentions Jane by April Lindner:
If you’ve only read the works of her more prominent sisters, you should definitely check out this book by Anne Brontë. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall tells the story of a mysterious young widow who takes up residence at Wildfell Hall. (Aubrey Fredrickson)
I’m late to being a Springsteen fan (I’m a classical music woman) but have come to appreciate him. I found much about the thoughts of a serious rock musician in the book “Jane” by April Lindner. She used his personality in a retelling of the famous novel “Jane Eyre,” making his personality that of the dark, brooding hero. (Marilyn Crowley)The Sunday Times reviews the restaurant Bronte in Trafalgar Square and a Brontë joke was unavoidable:
Now it’s been taken over and redesigned by Tom Dixon and called Bronte. Why Bronte? Because it serves bran well? No, because Nelson, the bloke on the post outside, was the first Duke of Bronté. (AA Gill)361 Magazine (Italy) lists several literary England destinations:
HaworthIl Librario (Italy) explores how attitudes about marriage have changed with time in literature:
Non è possibile pensare ai romanzi delle sorelle Brontë senza far riferimento alla brughiera, affascinante paesaggio che fa da cornice alle opere delle sorelle scrittrici. E infatti è ad Haworth, immerso nel tipico selvaggio habitat dell’Inghilterra, che Emily, Charlotte e Anne vissero, tanto da far prendere alla zona il nome di Brontë Country. In questo villaggio della contea del West Yorkshire le sorelle crebbero respirando quell’atmosfera suggestiva che poi avrebbero impresso nei propri romanzi. Nella casa georgiana in cui le tre abitarono dal 1820 e in cui diedero origine ai loro celebri romanzi, è ospitato oggi il Brontë Personage Museum. Nei dintorni di Haworth sorge invece il Top Withens, una fattoria che pare abbia ispirato la casa di Heathcliff in Cime Tempestose. Ma numerosi sono i luoghi collegati alle sorelle e alle loro opere. Camminando per la brughiera dei dintorni, si può incorrere ad esempio nelle Brontë Waterfall, il Brontë Bridge o il Penistone Crag, la “grotta delle fate” menzionata più volte in Cime Tempestose. (Giorgia Lo Iacono) (Translation)
Pensate a Jane Austen o a Elizabeth Gaskell, alle sorelle Brontë: la vita matrimoniale non interessa più, la protagonista celebra se stessa e la propria adultità con un patto, un contratto che la legittima come parte viva della società. Ma poi? Qualcosa s’incrina: basta leggere Middlemarch o Ritratto di signora per accorgersi che l’idea di matrimonio come prescrizione sociale rasserenante è entrata in crisi, e anzi la delusione delle aspettative iniziali accende un incredibile (e ancora attualissimo) motore narrativo. (Gloria Ghioni) (Translation)Infobae (Argentina) discusses why we use the derogatory term 'chick lit' and not 'boy lit', for instance:
Hay cuentos y novelas escritas por hombres y por mujeres. Eso es literatura. Sin embargo, mayormente es así, a secas, cuando el autor es un varón. Si no, es "literatura femenina". Como si la visión del mundo sólo fuera universal cuando es de ellos. En Madame Bovary (1856), Gustave Flaubèrt habla de amor, de inconformismo y de adulterio, pero lo suyo es "realismo", mientras que a las hermanas Brontë, aunque todas sus obras son clásicos, se las encasilla en "romántico". (Daniela Pasik) (Translation)Finally, a possible first edition of Villette will be on sale next September 29th. The George Mason friends (Fairfax County Public Library) have more information here.
Walk & Ride Festival
Brontës and the Atom
Sunday 25th September. Start: 11:00
Duration: 4 hours
Distance: 6.5 miles
Grading: Medium
A walk to celebrate Charlotte Brontë's bi-centenary and The Atoms 10th anniversary. Fosters Leap Wycoller Dene and on the Brontë and Pendle Way through Germany to Wycoller village (and cafe) and back to the starting point.
Jane Eyre off the page! In Brontë Lancashire
by Pendle Borough Council
Sun 25 September 2016
14:30 – 15:45
The Aisled Barn
Wycoller, Wycoller Country Park
Near Colne, United Kingdom
To celebrate Charlotte Brontë’s bicentenary in Bronte Lancashire. Join Sue Newby from the Brontë Parsonage Museum to bring Jane Eyre off the page in Wycoller, Lancashire. With a really simple script and costumes we’ll re-create the early part of Jane’s story. Together we’ll dramatise her time with the awful Reed family and then her banishment to the most horrible school in literature – Lowood. Everyone gets to join in this FREE workshop. It’s suitable for children aged 8 years and above and all families are welcome - no drama skills required! (...)
After the workshop, enjoy visiting the atmospheric village which inspired the Brontës including the ruined hall which is the real Ferndean Manor in Jane Eyre.
A little belatedly we report the nomination of Ponden Hall in the 2016 Dorset Cereals B&B awards. In The Guardian:Boasting a stunning location on the Pennine Way, Ponden Hall is a must-visit for literary enthusiasts. Built in 1634, the Brontë children visited the hall regularly, using the library. “Branwell Brontë wrote a short ghost story about the house,” Akhurst says, “and there is compelling evidence that Ponden provided inspiration for Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. One of our three guest bedrooms, the Earnshaw Room, houses the ‘Cathy window’ – in the book, Cathy’s ghost tries to get in the house through the window when she’s searching for Heathcliff.”Coincidentally, Vesna Armstrong Photography posts several pictures of Ponden Hall.
To make the room even more special, Akhurst commissioned an 18th-century-style box bed like the one described in Wuthering Heights. With such attention to literary detail, it’s easy to see why Ponden Hall has welcomed famous writers, including Tracy Chevalier (Girl with a Pearl Earring), and TV dramatist Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley).
Most guests come to Ponden Hall on the Brontë trail, so Akhurst recommends walks to the Brontë Waterfall, or to Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse set in the exposed moorland location that inspired Wuthering Heights. Over the border into Lancashire, historic Wycoller Hall is thought to be the inspiration for Ferndean Manor in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
More Brontë history abounds in Haworth, at the Brontë Parsonage Museum, where the literary family lived, and Akhurst used to work. For foodies, Akhurst recommends 10 the coffee house for coffee and cakes, Embers restaurant for dining, and, “For something more unusual, join a reading group at Cobbles and Clay cafe.”
Branwell Brontë died 168 years ago this weekend, on September 24th, 1848. His cause of death was listed as “chronic bronchitis and marasmus”, a polite way of saying he was a coughing, half-starved, alcoholic, laudanum-addicted wreck who finally, mercifully, proved unequal to the struggle of drawing breath.BBC's Radio 4 in Four lists some baddies we love to love. Including:
He lived just long enough to witness the first glimmering of what his sisters would become – Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey were published in 1847, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in 1848. This cannot have helped his condition. Once, too, Branwell had dreamed of becoming a celebrated author, but, like his other plan to set the world on fire as a renowned poet and portrait-painter, or to marry his one great love, his literary ambition had dissolved into the bottom of a brandy glass. Charlotte, Emily and Anne deliberately kept Branwell out of discussions about their work. They knew their success would choke him.
They failed, however, to keep Branwell out of the legends that grew up after their deaths. He only published a few poems in his local newspapers during his lifetime, but Branwell’s name is forever associated with the nineteenth century classic novels written by his sisters. The Brontë label is a powerful one, conjuring up lowering skies, windswept moors, unbridled passion and haunting poetry. Although Emily, Anne and Charlotte’s novels are all unique, common threads run through all of the books. Theirs was the Romantic impulse at its most pure and intense. (Karina Wilson) (Read more)
3. HeathcliffThe New York Times reviews The Bestseller Code by Jodie Marcher and Matthew L. Jockers:
Since its publication in 1847, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights has become one of the most admired and popular of all English novels. Heathcliff is more often thought of as a romantic hero, because of his love for Cathy than for his later years of retribution. In the second part of the novel he grows into a vicious, haunted man. His complicated, mesmeric and peculiar nature makes him a rare character, with components of both the hero and villain.
Nonetheless, there’s an awkward charm in watching an algorithm discern the things that humans appreciate instinctively. In a section about syntax, Archer and Jockers point to “Reader, I married him,” Charlotte Brontë’s famous line. “Isn’t the entire point of so many stories to get that ‘I’ and that ‘him’ closely aligned, separated by an all-important verb like ‘married’?” they write. “So often, this is entirely why we keep turning the pages.” (Jia Tolentino)Richard and Judy in The Daily Express disagree with the choice of Emily Blunt for the The Girl on the Train film:
But really – though I understand the pressures on producers to cast beautiful women in lead roles – it’s pretty ridiculous. I can’t watch Victoria because Jenna Coleman is so spectacularly lovely (although that doesn’t stop Richard) and Queen Victoria simply wasn’t.The Globe and Mail reviews Emma Donoghue's The Wonder:
It’s a shame. It would be like casting Marilyn Monroe as Jane Eyre. A travesty.
One of the book’s most arresting phrases is about Anna’s last day of eating. First, communion is “the end of being a child.” Another strong refrain comes from Psalms: “[S]trange children have faded away.” Following the trail of novels such as Oliver Twist or Jane Eyre, the stop sign on childhood comes too soon, and this story’s conflict fades rather quickly as well. The Wonder’s ending fits a Victorian tale, but it could have used a little more salt. (Alix Hawley)The Minneapolis-St Paul Star Tribune reviews the same novel:
So many things are right in this novel that I wished — almost angrily — that a few things had been better, most particularly the dialogues in which characters tell each other things for no reason except that the reader needs to know them. And the ending struck me as contrived. But then, I could say the same about “Jane Eyre,” which I love. The bottom line: Read it. The important things will stay with you while the clumsy ones will fade from memory. (Patricia Hagen)The New York Observer is very critical with the producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who thinks that Hollywood is failing at the young male audience:
Perhaps, Lorenzo, you oily insider from the executive suite, you approached your in-house focus group – your sons, 18 and 15. Possibly, they were bellyaching that they had to readWuthering Heights in AP English – a novel BY A WOMAN — or attended a school-imposed workshop on how not to rape a sleeping co-ed. (Thelma Adams)The National visits the FutureFest in London:
The Tobacco Dock is a gated thoroughfare filled with glass box-rooms. And I couldn’t help but feel the echoes of the original Crystal Palace “Great Exhibition” of 1851, where Darwin, Dickens, Charlotte Brontë and thousands of others gazed upon the inventive and productive plenty of the British Empire. (Pat Kane)Bustle has a list of reader types:
1, The Classics ReaderThe Georgia Straight asks the author Kevin Patterson about the book that changed his life:
This reader can often be found at rare bookstores, trying to track down the perfect copy of Jane Eyre. They've read every classic — not for class, for fun — and you're pretty sure that 80% of the things they say are actually book quotes. They're very sophisticated, and when you're looking for classy conversation, this is your go-to reader friend. (Julia Seales)
There is a window in adolescence and early adulthood when one is open to being rocked by books in a way that does not persist long enough. That feeling of watching a movie play in one’s thoughts, of losing even the sense of turning pages: for a lot of us it was Jane Austen, for others Tolkein (sic) , one of the Brontës, or Hemingway.Jezebel discusses the apparent 'rise of the sexy period drama':
The costume drama, the argument goes, was once a reliable straight adaptation where sex was a mere afterthought, less valued than a lovingly accurate depiction of either source material or subject matter. It’s where Shakespeare and Jane Austen, the Brontes and important men of genius found a modern audience; it’s where the best of British culture and history was simultaneously preserved and adapted. The genre, it would seem, has devolved into a melodramatic romp in which important novels and influential historical figures are reduced to lumps of lusty flesh. A handful of critics bemoan the sexy costume drama and point to the usual suspects: the inevitable dumbing down of culture, Hollywood, and, of course, women. (Stassa Edwards)El País (Spain) reviews The Houses of the Russians by Robert Aickman:
Como si Roald Dahl y Lovecraft hubieran tenido un hijo secreto (al fin y al cabo, esto es ficción) y lo hubieran mandado a los páramos de Cumbres borrascosas. O al Hotel Fawlty. (Carlos Primo) (Translation)La Razón (Spain) reviews the film Lady Macbeth by William Oldroyd:
La trama ambientada en el siglo XIX se inspira en Shakespeare –poquito- y en la obra de Nikolai Leskov, quien ya andaba en la famosa película de Andrzej Wajda “Lady Macbeth en Siberia”. Este film acaba pareciéndose más a “Cumbres borrascosas”, eso sí, con muchos asesinatos. Francamente inútil. (Carlos Pumares) (Translation)El País's Cinemanía (Spain) thinks more or less the same:
Como Cumbres borrascosas protagonizada por el estrangulador de Boston, digo yo. Lady Macbeth es la historia de Katherine (sí, como Catherine Earnshaw), una joven recién casada en un matrimonio de conveniencia a la que Oldroyd nos presenta como una víctima de la brutalidad de su marido y su suegro. (Andrea G. Bermejo) (Translation)Página 12 (Argentina) describes the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine in the Patagonia:
Las cumbres borrascosas del Paine –un nombre que significa azul y que, contradiciendo a Emily Brontë, “no traduce bien los rigores que allí desencadena el viento cuando hay tempestad”– nos dicen adiós. (Graciela Cutuli) (Translation)The Queen's University Journal (Canada) thinks that Shakespeare is overrated. Not really a good idea to use the Brontës (big fans) to build up the notion:
The notion of star-crossed lovers: Try reading Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre. Loss of innocence: Just pick up Lord of the Flies. Death, honour and revenge:Hello, Harry Potter, anyone? (Gabi Sandler & Clayton Tomlinson)According to GraphoMania (Italy) Wuthering Heights was one of the favourite books of Henry Miller; this Vogue China photoshot is called Wuthering Heights. Bookstr talks about the Morgan Library exhibition on Charlotte Brontë.
The West Yorkshire Playhouse Brontë season continues with a very singular new adaptation of Villette:VilletteEDIT: The Ilkley Gazette adds:
by Charlotte Brontë
Re-imagined by Linda Marshall-Griffiths
September 24th to October 15th (Post Show Discussion Wed 5 Oct)
Courtyard Theatre
Leeds
Lucy Snowe, alone and abandoned, boards a boat in search of purpose.
Arriving at an archaeological site digging for the remains of the elusive Lady of Villette, she works alongside the beautiful Gin, the prying Beck, the charming Dr John and the remote Professor Paul, though Lucy remains an outsider.
Absorbed in her work to find a cure for the next pandemic to secure humanity’s future, can she open herself up to the possibility of love and put the bones of the past behind her?
On the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth, West Yorkshire Playhouse celebrates her unique genius with a daring new adaptation by a fellow Yorkshire writer, Linda Marshall-Griffiths. With echoes of the illness and loss that wracked Brontë’s own life, both novel and play explore the redemptive power of love and the uncertainty of holding on to it.
A Playhouse spokesman said many people considered Villette to be better, more ambitious and complex than Charlotte’s more famous novel Jane Eyre.
Linda Marshall Griffiths has approached’ novel from a 21st century perspective, focusing on around Lucy Snowe, a brilliant virologist who could play a crucial role in finding a cure for a pandemic virus but is plagued by her a past which torments her at every turn.
As the urgency and burden of her work grow greater, she grapples with the promise and possibility of love and the fear of losing it.
Director Mark Rosenblatt said: ‘This re-imagining of Villette gets to the heart of the original novel but finds a way to connect it with a modern audience.
“It relocates and updates the action to a near-future world, placing Lucy in a position of isolation and distance as the last survivor of her kind - as Charlotte Brontë was the last of her siblings when she wrote Villette.” (David Knights)
