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Wednesday, October 03, 2018

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The Telegraph and Argus features the work of artist Richard O'Neill.
Imagine a world of blue skies and golden sands, of lush green countryside, and pretty market towns. [...]
His hand-drawn, digital art brings bold colours, clean lines and sharp definition to familiar sights, creating a world reminiscent of a bygone era, of smart seaside promenades where couples stroll arm-in-arm, of high streets where shopping is carried in wicker baskets, and of picnic-friendly hillsides.
Yet despite its retro evocations, Richard’s work is firmly planted in the 21st century, his work tools not a palate and brushes, but a high-tech modern-world gadget. [...]
Landmarks across the region included in Richard’s vast gallery include Bradford's City Park, the Brontë Parsonage at Haworth, Salts Mill in Saltaire, Whitby Abbey and the Humber Bridge. Nationally recognised images include The Shard, Stonehenge, Edinburgh Castle and Blackpool Tower. (Helen Mead)
Coincidentally, Brontë Babe Blog has a post on art inspired by the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

A columnist from The News Tribune finds 'the connections in a crazy week of politics and culture'.
Due to scheduling issues, I experienced more cultural activities than usual in a short span of time. I saw Moore’s film, watched the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Supreme Court nomination hearings, took in the Sistine Chapel display at the Armory in Tacoma, then traveled to Seattle to see the play, “Jane Eyre,” at Book-It Repertory Theater.
Somehow it all felt connected. [...]
Back in the car, I listened to more of the hearings on the drive to Seattle.
I met my friend Kathy and we talked about it on our way to the theater. The play was fantastic. The story of Jane Eyre is about an abused orphan girl who perseveres, and against all odds becomes triumphant as an adult woman. Jane speaks her mind, is true to herself and ultimately wins the prize of financial independence and a happy marriage.
We should all be so brave! (Mary Magee)
Queen Anne & Magnolia News reviews the same adaptation making a similar connection.
In perfect timing with the #MeToo movement, Book-It Repertory Theatre opens its 29th season with an engaging revival of a beloved classic, Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre.” [...]
Today’s selfie generation is all about appearance. But 200 years before the digital selfie came along, Charlotte Brontë introduced a 19th century literary selfie in “Jane Eyre” — the concept of “the inner self,” AKA the modern individual.
Like Brontë’s prose, the stage adaptation focuses on Jane’s moral and spiritual development, told through an intimate, first-person narrative. Book-It’s adaptation strays from that by introducing narratives from other characters. [...]
Book-It delivers an excellent production, with a few caveats.
In the novel, Jane narrates, but in this production other characters also narrate their own actions. At times, this undermines the mood and rhythm of the adaptation.
Mi Kang’s performance as Jane Eyre is charming and intelligent, but slightly light on psychological and passionate intensity. But we must remember that passions were not as openly expressed in the 19th century. Also, it doesn’t help that she retains her dumpy childhood frock as she approaches womanhood.
As Rochester, Ross Destiche charmingly transitions from awkward repartee to emotional expression. His brooding masculinity is what we today would call a “chick magnet.”
The supporting cast is suburb and, despite the serious saga, sometimes amusing. As puffed-up evangelical Mr. Brocklehurst, Frank Lawler elicits a few chortles from the audience. Ian Bond and Ayo Tushinde take on multiple roles with variety and creative panache. Keiko Green’s turn as the violent lunatic Bertha sent a few chills up the spine — she’s definitely off the party list, unless you’re planning a bonfire. And sound and lighting designers Kyle Thompson and Thorn Michaels create a perfect and eerie Gothic ambience.
Brontë’s biggest accomplishment wasn’t in plot devices. It was the narrative voice of Jane — who so openly expressed her fervent desire for identity, definition and meaning. For this critic, there are moments in the production that Jane’s narrative lacks the fiery ardor needed for Brontë’s feisty heroine.
Back in the day, Brontë’s literary revolution, or should we say rebellion, led some critics to describe her as a heathen. She responded in a letter to a friend: “Unless I have the courage to use the language of Truth in preference to the jargon of Conventionality, I ought to be silent...”
Undaunted, her refusal to be silent created a new mold for the self. Beckman’s insightful adaptation dramatizes how a person’s inner life can allow her to effect change from the inside out. (Starla Smith)
And more Jane Eyre on stage as Carme Portaceli's Jane Eyre opens in Madrid (Spain) on Friday and several news outlets have articles about it.
La actriz Ariadna Gil, que trae al Teatro Español hasta el próximo 21 de octubre su interpretación de 'Jane Eyre', ha asegurado que en la sociedad de hoy en día "hay muchas cosas que no cambian y las injusticias siguen existiendo".
   Al ser preguntada sobre las denuncias sociales y políticas que traslada la obra, Gil ha defendido que 'Jane Eyre' es "actual en muchas cosas". "Sobre todo en tantas injusticias y desniveles de la sociedad: hay muchas cosas en el texto que nos recuerdan a hoy y con las que nos identificamos", ha señalado. [...]
Dirigida por Carme Portaceli, 'Jane Eyre' es una adaptación para el Teatro Lliure con motivo del 200 aniversario del nacimiento de la escritora inglesa Charlotte Brontë, escrita en catalán y traducida ahora al castellano.
   La libertad de la mujer está en el centro del texto, tal y como ha reconocido la propia actriz. "Es una historia de superación de alguien inteligente, brillante y fuerte que nos habla de cómo era ser mujer en una época", ha añadido.
   En esta misma línea, Portaceli ha recordado que Eyre es \"una mujer sin filtros" que solo vuelve al amor"cuando es un acto libre". Y pone en valor también a algunos hombres que la rodean. "El feminismo es importante porque va a cambiar la escala de valores, pero nunca tiene que ser excluyente, sino integrador", ha concluido. (Europa Press) (Translation)
El "espíritu libre" de Jane Eyre, el personaje literario de Charlote Brontë, llegará el viernes al Teatro Español en la piel de Ariadna Gil, quien aborda la lucha de esa mujer por mantener sus principios pese a las convenciones de su época dentro de un montaje dirigido por Carme Portaceli que se estrenó en Barcelona en 2017.
"En la obra hay un gran amor, que es el de Rochester y Jane, pero hay algo más importante que es cómo Jane, sin tener ninguna circunstancia que la ayude, tiene el instinto de luchar por su libertad y sus principios", ha señalado hoy Portacieli, actual directora artística del Teatro Español, en una rueda de prensa en la que ha estado acompañada por algunos de los actores que encabezan el reparto de la obra: Ariadna Gil, Gabriela Flores, Pepa López y Abel Folk. [...]
"Es una adaptación tan complicada porque Brontë, además de contar una peripecia vital de un personaje, habla de muchísimas cosas, desde la época en la que vive a la historia de superación del personaje", recalca Gil sobre un texto que critica abiertamente los patrones victorianos de género y de clase y en el que queda reflejada la forma en la que debían actuar y comportarse las mujeres.
"Nunca había tenido un personaje tan difícil y nunca me ha constado menos emocionarme en escena, de sentir en escena", ha añadido la actriz.
Folk, que en la obra encarna a Rochester, ha apuntado que se trata de "una de las primeras grandes novelas feministas de la historia" y que esos valores están presentes también en la adaptación que hizo Anna María Ricart para este montaje.
Su personaje, subraya, es el de un hombre al que "la vida le ha maltratado tanto que se ha vuelto resistente como el caucho". Solo un espíritu "sincero y libre", dice, logra convertirlo de nuevo en "carne".
En el viaje de Jane que, para Pepa López es "una lección de vida", son muy importantes también los personajes secundarios, ya que, según explica Gabriela Flores, "enriquecen" mucho la obra y están "implicados en la evolución" de la protagonista. (Cope) (Translation)
Brain Pickings comments on Jane Welsh Carlyle and her letters, reminding us of the fact that
For a time, she was rumored to have authored the pseudonymously published Jane Eyre. (Maria Popova)
La Opinión de Tenerife (Spain) interviews Gonzalo Torné, director of the Poetry section of Alba Editorial, a Spanish publishing house and this first to translate Emily Brontë's complete poetry into Spanish.
¿Por qué hay tantas obras importantes que nunca se han traducido al castellano, como la Poesía completa de Emily Brontë? Pues no lo sé muy bien. Conjeturo: aunque ahora nuestra cultura está en la órbita anglosajona hemos vivido varios siglos un poco de espaldas y queda trabajo por hacer. (Tino Pertierra) (Translation)
The Guardian Reading Group wonders what to read 'to celebrate the Windrush generation'.
This month, we’re looking for books by and about the postwar Caribbean immigrants to the UK and their descendants – what will you choose? [...]
It’s possible to argue that UK publishing has been benefiting from Caribbean talent for more than 100 years. Even before the Empire Windrush steamed over here in 1948, writers from the islands were making their lives here. One of the first to be published was Jean Rhys, the daughter of a family with rapidly diminishing fortunes who set sail from Dominica in 1916. She’s best known for her writings in Paris in the 1920s, but she actually spent just as much time in London. Not, it should be noted, that she enjoyed being in the city, describing it as “a cold dark dream”. Like so many who came after her, Rhys suffered from poverty, snobbery and mistreatment in a society distrustful of her heavily accented English. But she also published superb books like Good Morning, Midnight, Voyage in the Dark – and, of course, years later, the crowning glory, Wide Sargasso Sea. (Sam Jordison)
USA Today's Happy Ever After features a romance novel inspired by Wuthering Heights.
HEA unveils the cover of contemporary romance (and adaptation of Wuthering Heights) Hollywood King by Monica Corwin, arriving in its entirety on Oct. 16. [...]
About the book:
Heath was never my brother.
Nor my step brother, or any other relation our family tried to impose on us.
He was always just Heath, and at the end he was my Heath.
Ten years ago he disappeared, and within three years of his absence he’d taken over Hollywood.
The world my father built.
The world he wasn’t good enough for.
The world he’d been denied when he was told he couldn’t have me.
Now he’s back, and he only wants one thing…to take it all.
Even me.
Hollywood King is Wuthering Heights crashed into the glitz and glam of Hollywood Royalty. A stand-alone book with the happily ever after you always wanted for Cathy and Heathcliff. (Joyce Lamb)
Yorkshire Evening Post reports the launch of a calendar in memory of former Leeds Beckett University student Ellen Scott.
Former Leeds Beckett University student Ellen Scott will be remembered with the calendar, which features pictures of ‘mermen’ taken at places she loved during her life. [...]
Mermen in the calendar include Ellen’s stepdad Roger Cunliffe and Rev Peter Mullins, Vicar of the family’s local church, St Michael and All Angels, in Howarth [sic]. Locations include the Brontë Parsonage and Berwick-upon-Tweed, where family members are from. Mrs Scott said: “The idea behind the calendar was that it is a walk through Ellen’s life. It’s the people and places that she loved.”
The Eyre Guide reviews Aunt Branwell and the Brontë Legacy by Nick Holland.

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