Sigmund Freud would have had a field day putting Jane on the couch

People's World reviews A Noise Within's Jane Eyre.

Eyre-heads are likely to find the leap from Brontë’s page to A Noise Within’s stage, as penned by OBIE-award winning playwright Elizabeth Williamson, a worthy successor to these previous productions. This is so, despite the fact that due to the limits of the theatrical medium, in contrast to film, it’s much harder to depict horseback accidents, architectural expanse, flashbacks, lightning bolts striking a tree and fires onstage than it is to do so onscreen. However, as helmed by ANW’s Producing Artistic Director Geoff Elliott, the cast captures the essence and ambiance of the spirit Brontë imbued Jane Eyre with.

Jeanne Syquia embodies the title character’s intensity, integrity, intellect and sensitivity with her finely etched portrait of the 19ish-year-old governess yearning to breathe free. Her performance and the plot fully dramatize the plight of 19th-century women in 1847 England, which Friedrich Engels chronicled in his 1845 study The Condition of the Working Class in England. In fiction, like her contemporary fellow scribes Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy, Brontë details and essays the class relations of Britain’s hierarchical, patriarchal system that oppressed workers like Jane.

Although Frederick Stuart is not as physically imposing as some of his motion picture predecessors were in the domineering part of Edward Rochester, the actor does convey the tragic grandeur of a man who, as he laments, has been “out-maneuvered by fate.” Despite his wealth and privilege, the mysteries and secrets—which he tries to keep Jane from learning or to shield her from—upend his role as the master of the Thornfield Gothic manor and eviscerate his power. If Jane the plucky protagonist can be viewed as a proto-feminist, one could argue that Rochester is an archetype of the brooding angry young man characters that filled the postwar stage and screen in British “kitchen sink dramas” and with characterizations by Marlon Brando, James Dean and Montgomery Clift.

Except, of course, Rochester is actually a troubled middle-aged man at least twice as old as Jane, not to mention also, like, you know, her employer: In the context of today’s #MeToo movement, their relationship can be seen as an eyebrow-raising excursion into the dynamics of power imbalances. Jane is keenly aware of this economic disparity, which Brontë cleverly (if rather improbably) works out as the plot unfolds. (The age difference between Jane and “Mr. Rochester” never seems to bother the teenager, which of course is fodder for middle-aged male egos.) Some may also consider the saga’s depiction of mental illness to be archaic and problematic.

Members of the supporting cast—Deborah Strang, Trisha Miller, Riley Shanahan, Bert Emmett, Stella Bullock and Julia Manis—all tackle multiple roles in bringing this simmering saga set in (presumably) 1840s England vividly, realistically alive. This sensibility is enhanced by Angela Balogh Colin’s period apparel, along with Tony Valdes’ wigs and makeup. Scenic designer Frederica Nascimento’s sets believably render the interiors of Thornfield. Ken Booth’s lighting communicates not only moods but, rather prophetically, fire (although not wildfires, unlike the Eaton flames that decimated neighborhoods near the ANW playhouse).

With its subplot of madness and terror, Jane Eyre is arguably a prototype of Gothic horror novels. The lead character’s name is symbolic; despite its spelling, Jane’s last name is pronounced like “air” – indicating she’s ethereal – plus as “heir,” referring to an unfolding plot twist. Of course, as in Charlotte’s younger Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (also published in 1847), at the root of Jane Eyre is sexual repression, which was especially acute during the Victorian era. In the first lines of Williamson’s play, the almost certainly virginal Jane enunciates an intense yearning for “action,” which could be interpreted as, among other things, an expression of sexual desire. The “will-they-or-won’t- they?” frisson between Jane and Rochester is palpable. Call it “Sense and Sensuality.” Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Reich would have had a field day putting Jane on the couch. (No wonder the Brontë sisters died so young.)

Be that as it may, all in all, director Elliott, bard Williamson, cast and crew successfully take today’s audience back in time to a two-century-old, not-so-merry England with their two-act drama. Some might consider this tale to be old-fashioned, melodramatic and creaky, while others may find this stage production powerfully breathes new life into one of the greatest novels in British literary history. As a fan of the Brontës’ impassioned fiction, this critic was delighted to reacquaint himself with one of literature’s most romantic pairings, Jane and Rochester, and to ponder the question that both Charlotte and Emily dared to ask in a society dominated by class and gender oppression: Against all odds and the walls of repression, can true love conquer all? (Ed Rampell)

After yesterday's article in The Telegraph, the vultures are at it and GB News states that

The Brontë museum has claimed Wuthering Heights’ Heathcliff was of “black African descent” and inspired by former slaves. (Eliana Silver)

The Brontë (Parsonage) Museum has done no such thing. The Brontë (Parsonage) Museum has merely put forward one of the theories on Heathcliff's racial identity which have been debated in peace and quiet for many, many years without the intervention of scandal-mongering news sites. Can you even trust a site that doesn't even use the right picture of Emily Brontë? Again, we will quote how the Brontë (Parsonage) Museum begins its resource on this particular theory, never claiming it as a fact:

While we can never know exactly how Emily Brontë imagined Heathcliff, descriptions in the novel - and its historical context - open up a number of possibilities about Heathcliff’s racial identity.

There are many different theories about Heathcliff’s origins. One suggestion is that Heathcliff has Black African heritage, with interpretations linking him to the Transatlantic Slave Trade and Black figures who might have inspired Emily.

The same columnist from Far Out Magazine continues showing her dislike of Emerald Fennell and thinks that she should 'go away for a while'.

Emerald Fennell is, unfortunately, one of the most talked about directors in the movie business right now, with leaked images from her Wuthering Heights adaptation dominating social media. One peak online, and you’ll notice that many people are expressing outrage over the historical inaccuracy of Margot Robbie’s costume and bizarre casting choices, such as Jacob Elordi as the titular Heathcliff. [...]

With all of Fennell’s effort to prove herself a worthy writer and director, she is hindering her own work and damaging her reputation, with each venture a blatant attempt at shock filmmaking to divide audiences and lure people into the cinema under the guise that it is the next project from ‘the twisted mind’ of Emerald Fennell. Ultimately, there is only so far her mind goes, and it seems that her Wuthering Heights adaptation will be another piece of needlessly shocking cinema that destroys a classic novel in its exploitation of another current issue, further cementing her as a director who either needs to take a nap, or simply find a new writer. (Emily Ruuskanen)

Haworth is one of '5 superb Yorkshire staycations as Trump US tariffs hit exchange rates amid holiday prices fears' recommended by The Yorkshire Post.