By all accounts the inaugural Banagher Brontë Festival was a huge success

Offaly Live reports that the first ever Banagher Brontë Festival was a great success.

By all accounts the inaugural Banagher Brontë Festival held last weekend to celebrate Charlotte Brontë’s birthday, was a huge success.

Proceedings opened on Friday evening with a première of 'An Evening with Charlotte Brontë' devised specifically for the Banagher Brontë Group by Michael O’Dowd and his wife Christine. Michael is the author of Charlotte Brontë An Irish Odyssey, an historical account of Charlotte’s honeymoon in Dublin, Banagher, Kilkee and Killarney with her Banagher-reared husband Arthur Bell Nicholls.

The presentation focussed on the poetry, songs and music beloved of the Brontë family particularly the melodies of Thomas Moore and poems and ballads of Robbie Burns. The narrative and music were exquisitely presented drawing much appreciation and participation from the large attendance. The event was held in Corrigan’s Back Lounge which was beautifully decorated and appointed for the gala occasion.

All events on Saturday were held in Crank House starting with Joanne Wilcock’s talk called 'Falling in Love with Arthur'. Joanne explored the different opinions and feelings people had regarding Arthur Bell Nicholls. Speaking in great detail she explained how the negative opinions relating to Arthur gradually changed particularly in the cases of his father-in-law Patrick Brontë and Martha Brown, the lifelong servant at the Brontë parsonage.

Initially, in 1852, Patrick had violently opposed Arthur’s marriage proposal to Charlotte but he gradually acquiesced and they were married in 1854. Seven years later in his will he bequeathed the vast majority of his estate to ‘My beloved and esteemed son-in-law The Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls, B.A.’

Martha’s early hostility to Arthur mellowed to respect and affection, accompanying him when he returned to Banagher in 1861 and making numerous long-term return visits before her death in 1880. Surviving correspondence between them show Arthur in an avuncular role advising Martha on her romantic and financial affairs.

Pauline Clooney then presented 'Currer Bell's Silent Years 1852-1855', an examination of Charlotte’s paths to publication and her attitude to a writing life. Making great use of her letters to prospective publishers she illustrated how the Brontë sisters overcame many patriarchal obstacles before eventually achieving the goal of publication.

With the huge success of Jane Eyre and the welcome finances that accrued her writing business affairs become better managed. As to the relative lack of output between 1852 and 1855 Pauline posited that the crippling loneliness she endured after Branwell, Emily and Anne died within nine month between autumn 1848 and summer 1849, stifled her creativity. They had not just been her close siblings but more vitally the lifelong collaborators of her writings.

Finally she disapproved of the notion found in some biographies that Arthur had curbed her writing after their marriage in 1854. Evidence shows that far from being so that he had encouraged her in her last work, Emma, which unfortunately remained unfinished before her death in March 1855.

After lunch, at 2.30 p.m Maebh O’Regan presented 'The Art of Branwell Brontë'. Branwell showed great promise as a portrait artist but he felt his true vocation was in literary composition. Maebh spoke of the artists that had trained the Brontë children and how Branwell had been singled out for special tuition which enabled him to become a portrait artist of note.

This was followed by two short films 'The Early Days of the BBG', a short film by created by Maebh and Seanie O’Regan, (Táin Bó Productions), capturing some historic (and otherwise) moments of the early days of the Banagher Brontë Group and some important footage on the group’s participation in the local Patrick’s day parade and a recent trip to Haworth and other parts of Yorkshire.

The day’s events concluded with a short amble from Crank House up the Main Street to view the various works of art and displays in local shop windows which have been created by local artists Phil Bennet and Lisa Glynn finishing with a close look at Sheila Hough’s marvellous portraits in Johnny Hough’s musical pub.

The festival concluded on Sunday morning with a short walk from Saint Paul’s Church on the Hill to Cuba to look at the remains of the Royal School of Banagher. Members then attended service where they were given a warm welcome by the Saint Paul’s Church community.

Matters drew to a close with coffees and teas in Nicola Daly’s guest house, Charlotte’s Way, where a specially prepared Brontë cake was served in honour of Charlotte’s 208th birthday. The essential ingredient of Brontë cake is crushed pistachios.

Houston Chonicle reviews Alley Theatre's Jane Eyre.

“Jane Eyre” is not the novel she used to be. She’s grown over the years with the barnacle-like accumulation of theories and readings that have expanded plain “Jane” into an obese compendium of interpretations including everything from its place in the evolving literary tradition of the novel to its radical feminism and Marxist and psychological elements — not to mention its Gothicism and the summaries of generations of students spanning from high school AP courses to college seniors. It’s exhausting to think about it — much less write the sentence!

Still, the image is relevant in light of the Alley Theatre’s current production of “Jane Eyre” adapted for the stage by Elizabeth Williamson. For though its basic plot and characters are extracted from Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 novel (originally subtitled, in typical 19th century indirection, as “An Autobiography”), it has to decide which of the many interpretations of Brontë will step on stage for the audience. [...]

This production loads up with an entrée of romance supported by sides of Gothic mystery and humorous takes on the novel’s gravy boat of coincidences and quaint values — all thoroughly digestible.

If such a description has an air of condescension, know, dear reader (as Jane might say), that none is intended. For to pull off such a feat requires clear, brave decisions on the part of the script and the production, beginning with opting to maintain the novel’s first-person narration: Jane speaks directly to the audience and evokes key dramatized scenes. To do this, director Eleanor Holdridge cedes the front of the stage to Melissa Molano’s Jane, relying on the symbol of Jane’s writing desk to define the space while using the majority of the stage to stand in as the large house of Jane’s employer, Edward Rochester. Aptly named Thornfield Hall, scenic designer John Coyne has created a space that has spiraling beauty and simplicity as well as sliding surfaces concealing mysteries and horrors.

More importantly, the production has found in Molano an actress capable and willing to create a performance that matches the set, and, for that matter, her exquisite costume designed by Valérie Thérèse Bart, that is flowing and complicated enough to suggest Victorian fashion but simple enough to represent Jane’s social status and to facilitate removal and putting on to show shifts in times of day. It is a performance that appears as seamless as the dress.

As Rochester, Chris Hutchison offers a clear foil to Molano’s Jane. Often seen as the brooding but manly hero, Hutchison’s Rochester is more mercurial. Beyond his wealth, he offers little in terms of traditional romantic attraction. Indeed, the audience first meets him falling onto the stage from his unseen horse and suffering from a twisted ankle more in line with troubles given to novels’ females. But as the play progresses, Hutchison lets Rochester’s flaws and quirks prepare us for his need for Jane and the play’s traditional happy ending even as they enable the Gothic mysteries centered on a largely unseen madwoman in the attic take on added thrills.

The large list of supporting characters is handled by actors playing multiple roles, with Susan Koozin’s Mrs. Fairfax, the housekeeper, and Lady Ingram, a visiting aristocrat hoping to trap Rochester’s money for her daughter, being especially enjoyable. Especially in her early scenes, she gives the production a depth it would otherwise struggle to find.

In short, neither Williamson’s script or the Alley’s production manage to plunge all the depths that Brontë’s novel has delivered to close readers for generations, but it is a delightful entertainment and an encouragement for audiences teased by this “Jane” to pick up the “Jane” residing in the novel’s pages. And even if no one accepts that prod, the Alley’s “Jane Eyre” insures that Brontë’s characters continue to breathe and entice even as it suggests ways the theatre and the printed page can have a healthy relationship. (Robert Donahoo)

A contributor to Worldcrunch wonders 'Why We Don't Let Stories End Anymore' meaning there are endless sequels, prequels and spin.offs of the stories we love.

The great American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury was enraptured, asking us to imagine our favorite novels by Kipling, Dickens, Wilde, Shaw or Poe brought back to life 30 years from now. What unintended changes would they undergo? Would Poe's Usher collapse only to rise again? Would The Great Gatsby do 20 laps around the pool? Would Cathy of Wuthering Heights rush to Heathcliff's cry from under the snow? (Loredana Lipperini)