Gothic Jurassic World

Saddleworth Independent reviews the local production of Blake Morrison's We Are Three Sisters.

But don’t be dissuaded from visiting The Millgate at Delph for Saddleworth Players’ adaptation of We are Three Sisters.
Not only is the production up to the consistently high standard you expect from the Players.
But it brings into sharp focus the individuality of the siblings – now revered as three of Britain’s most celebrated writers – and occasionally stripped of the dowdiness that attached itself to them.
Charlotte (Kate Davies) is the practical mother figure, Emily (Maye Battersby), a shy, yet empathetic figure while Anne (Esther Weetman) is the youngest and sickliest of the girls but no less spirited and determined.
Yet, it wouldn’t have been inappropriate to introduce a bracket after the play’s title to include a dysfunctional brother.
Branwell Brontë, played admirably and with suitable loucheness by Samuel Reid, is an equal part of the siblings’ drama.
In real life and in this stage portrayal he gradually squandered his considerable artistic ability, viewing life through the bottom of empty spirit bottles and the material gains offered by a blousy mistress: Verity Mann, an alluring femme fatale, as Lydia Robinson.
But it is the girls, all tragically dying young and out lived by father, Patrick Brontë (John Weetman), whose existences and experiences we intrude upon throughout Morrison’s considerable nod to Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters.
For a trio craving anonymity with their writings, adopting male pseudonyms while trying to find publishers, they’d be aghast with Brontë mania that now surrounds their lives and works.
Yet the beauty of We are Three Sisters is the thread of humour that runs through the dialogue and observations around the characters.
Martin Taylor as the Teacher and Lisa Kay as ageing maid and housekeeper, Tabby, are given such licence; Kay is particularly convincing.
Sam Rowlands, as the curate, is the eye candy who tries to woo both younger Brontës while James McKeane’s lovelorn, past his sell by date nameless Doctor is a tragi-comedic figure. (Trevor Baxter)

Viêt Nam News reports that,

The students of HCM City Open University’s foreign languages courses on June 2 translated a classic English novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, into a play and staged it at the Drama Theatre in HCM City’s District 1.
Everyone was delighted by the production’s quality as the amateur actors acted in a language that was not their mother tongue.

We are surprised to find a couple of Brontë references in a review of the film Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom in The Times.

The film, from there, really finds its feet as Bayona dips into his horror movie past (he made The Orphanage in 2007) and drags the franchise into the world of gothic mansions, thunderstorms and shadow-drenched tropes belonging more to the Brontës and Mary Shelley (appropriate for the ultimate “Frankenstein” series) than anything in Spielberg or Hollywood.
The dinos are brought to a castle called the Lockwood Estate (very Wuthering Heights) and a posh party is organised for arms dealers and the global super-rich (like the Eyes Wide Shut party but without the nudity and with dinosaurs). Of course, the dinosaurs rampage. But this time they do it in the best possible way. (Kevin Maher)

More on the Haworth public toilets saga in The Telegraph and Argus.

Councillor David Mahon, the new chairman of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council, said the toilet block in the Brontë Parsonage Car Park had been extremely busy during the latest Haworth 1940s Weekend.
He said people had been donating money into an honesty box at these loos, to help the parish council pay for the upkeep.
"There were probably three times as many people using the car park toilets as there were using the loos in Haworth Park," he said. "People were queueing all the way out of the block during the 40s Weekend."
He added it was hoped that Bradford Council would be returning in September to carry out repairs to the park toilets, noting these loos would likely have to close for three to four weeks while the work is carried out.
He reminded councillors that the Brontë Parsonage Museum still intends to develop its own toilets for museum visitors. (Miran Rahman)

BookRiot has selected '20 of the best Wuthering Heights quotes'. Ganesh B. Dhami posts about the novel. My Jane Eyre Collection looks at the illustrations of the Shakespeare Head edition of the novel.