Say It Anyway

Third Coast Review gives 4 stars to Red Orchid Theatre’s take on The Moors.

Ah, gothic romance. It is always a dark and stormy night with sexually repressed spinsters sitting in the parlor of a creaky old mansion with ivy growing inside. The winds howl as the storm rages and a mastiff sits forlornly looking out of the window. A Red Orchid Theatre’s The Moors takes the lid off the staid and murky tales of unrequited passion with a few moments of zen thrown in via Moor Hen and the Mastiff. Yes, there is a governess, a sinister maid, typhus fever, and someone in the attic for the purist. However, The Moors takes DuMaurier, the Brontës, and even Henry James and tells the story behind the tales of our high school reading lists. [...]

The Moors is a literate and beautifully staged show. The scenic design by Milo Blue encapsulates decay and madness in the intimate Red Orchid setting. The fog, vines, and cracked portraits form physical boundaries where this strange collection of characters live. The Moors is a show that holds up a mirror into the times in which we live as well. Some accept these limits and others go against restraints to break free no matter the consequence. It is a wickedly funny take on the gothic romance novel where the macabre blends with forbidden desires and suppressed passion. The moral of the story could be that schemers sometimes do prosper and dogs will be dogs. Go see this play and draw your conclusions. I highly recommend The Moors as a refreshing return to true Chicago-style theater—fearless and provocative. (Kathy D. Hey)

Love Belfast reports that the  inaugural Linen Hall Library Enlightenment Festival (February 1-5 and in Spring) will include

a performed reading of Jean Rhys’ novel Wide Sargasso Sea; a post-colonial and feminist prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. 

Metropolitan Magazine (Italy) had an article on Anne Brontë for her birthday yesterday.

“Agnes Grey” può essere considerato a suo modo un romanzo femminista sebbene la protagonista sia all’apparenza una donna mite e meno ribelle dell’eroine di Charlotte ed Emily Brontë. Questo perchè non smette mai di chiedersi come una donna possa sopravvivere in un epoca dura per le donne come quella vittoriana e come possa ottenere la sua emancipazione. Un indipendenza che Agnes Grey riesce a conquistare aprendo una scuola con la madre

“La signora di Wildfell Hall” ci porta invece in dote una donna estroversa, ribelle e artista come Helen Graham che fugge da un marito alcolista. Scritto in forma epistolare questo libro per la franchezza del linguaggio e per i temi trattati attirò subito polemiche e l’interesse dei lettori. Proprio da quest’opera si evince come Anne Brontë non sia affatto un’autrice inferiore alle sorelle ma che invece possa essere pienamente considerata un precursore del realismo moderno. (Stefano Delle Cave) (Translation)

AnneBrontë.org celebrated the birthday as well and so did the Brontë Parsonage Museum by sharing on YouTube the performance of Say It Anyway by poet Jasmine Gardosi commissioned when she was one of the museum's writers in residence in 2020.