'A place where she can define her own happiness'

First of all, please remember that there's an ongoing Crowdfunder project for bringing home to Haworth Charlotte Brontë's little book. If you haven't yet contributed to it, do please consider doing so as anything you can spare will be of help.

Ahead of Blackeyed Theatre’s production of Jane Eyre at The Atkinson in Southport (8-9 November), they have interviewed writer Nick Lane about his adaptation of the novel.

How did you approach adapting Jane Eyre? The facetious answer would be, “very, very carefully,” but we’ll get into that in other questions. People think writing is a singular process. It’s not entirely true. It’s collaborative. The vision has to be the writer’s, you know, and the nuts and bolts of sitting down and writing it; that’s obviously all you, but beforehand – while you’re forming your ideas – it’s always good to talk things through, so I approached this adaptation by discussing the book with Adrian McDougall, the Artistic Director of Blackeyed Theatre. That’s always good because not only is he a really great sounding board with his artistic director hat on, he’s also very clear when wearing his producer hat on what the company’s needs are – you know, how many actors can I have to tell this story; will they need to be physical performers, actors, musicians, that kind of thing. And from that you come up with a concept; you come up with a way you want to tell the story and a how and a why. Then it’s just about making sure your adaptation is respectful to the writer and really honours their vision. That doesn’t mean to say that things can’t be different – an adaptation is simply that; it’s not the book. That’s an important distinction to make. I think sometimes it can be healthy and interesting to take a theme that the author was keen on and explore that within the context of the adaptation. I saw a wonderful adaptation of 1984 a few years ago produced by a company called Headlong. It deviated hugely from the novel in parts but retained the very essence of Orwell, and particularly his message. And that’s key, because you do have to retain the vision of the author – especially with something like Jane Eyre because it is a book that means so much to a hell of a lot of people! [...]
In what ways have you diverged from the source material? I don’t think I have too much. As I mentioned earlier the narrative is compressed, distilled. I’ve worked on the main tracks of our protagonist; tried to pick out the key narrative beats without it becoming a “this… then this! Then this!” rollercoaster ride. The book’s far subtler than that and far more delicate. I confess I do find the book to be rather haunting and, in parts, downright spooky, so there’s perhaps more of a nod to that – I’ve not tried to turn it into a Gothic horror or anything; it’s still the book you all love! I hope! Oh; and one character – shall I name them? I shan’t name them because I don’t want to spoil it – I repurposed, if you like. There’s a thing in the book regarding Rochester’s secret that always bothered me, so I hate to use the word “fixed” because there’s no way I’d claim to have fixed a literary masterpiece – but it won’t ruin anything at all. I promise!
Why do you think Jane Eyre is so enduring? It’s everything I’ve said already; I think… a woman out of her time who endures incredible hardships but manages through sheer strength of will to ascend to a place where she can define her own happiness; not have it defined for her by society. That’s it for me anyway. It’s going to be different for everybody to be honest; there’s so much in it. That’s probably the key actually; there’s so much in it that people can draw from. There’s satire, there’s socioeconomic commentary, there’s this beautiful ache of a love story; these two characters that find each other. But for me, Jane’s an underdog; all her life she’s underestimated or treated with resentment and contempt, yet she endures it all and prevails. And who doesn’t love an underdog story? I love an underdog story; I’m a Doncaster Rovers fan – we’re always underdogs!

Thrive Global interviews 'celebrity party planners' Sara Raffa and Linden Ellis.

TG: Share a quote that you love and that gives you strength or peace. LE: “Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.” – Jane Eyre (Lindsey Benoit O'Connell and Ashley Camuso)

BQ Live tells about Jane Eyre being used - along others - for motivational purposes.

“When organisations start to grow and innovate, they can try to be all things to all people which can often result in comedy, with the risk of turning into a tragedy as they quickly overstretch themselves. Taking stock, and critically assessing strengths and weaknesses can provide an opportunity for the rebirth of an organisation’s innovation strategy. We use examples from famous stories such as Alice in Wonderland, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Jane Eyre and The Secret Garden to really bring the content to life and get people engaged.
“Once businesses go through the reflection stage which is where they work out what went wrong and how they can improve, which is often a painful experience, they will come out the other side and find themselves on a quest. This is the point where they can truly embed innovation into their business model. We are confident that this workshop will empower businesses of all sizes to let innovation in and make it an ingrained part of their culture.” (Ashleigh Smith)

According to Derry Now,

Romantic reunions have always captured our imaginations, from Tristan and Isolde, to Heathcliff and Catherine; Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca .
There is something haunting about the idea of a lost love; a relationship that never quite ran its natural course and could be reignited someday.

El diario (Spain) features Infernales, the Brontë biography written by Laura Ramos. The Eyre Guide has visited Renishaw Hall, the manor used as Thornfield Hall in the 1973 adaptation of Jane Eyre. The Brussels Brontë Blog has interviewed Belgian historical novelist Nathalie Stalmans about her novel Si j’avais des ailes, a fictional account of Charlotte Brontë’s time in Brussels at the Pensionnat Heger in 1842-1843.