Year reviews and Vaudeville's Villette

The doom of the end-of-the-year days. The review of the year, the best of, the year summarized... Today, we have two mentions.

TimeOut reviews the Best of 2006 in TV and Radio. The recent BBC version appears in the Hits section:

Jane Eyre BBC1. Beautifully adapted, directed and performed, particularly by relative newcomer Ruth Wilson, this was a BBC costume drama that was true to the channel’s finest traditions while bringing in a good deal of the depth and style of ‘Bleak House’

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette does the same but with Theatre in Pittsburgh. After Mrs. Rochester's performances are counted among the best of the year (see this old post for more information)

6. 'AFTER MRS. ROCHESTER 'Polly Teale, Quantum Theatre Quantum's "found" space was the original Carnegie Music Hall in Braddock, its aged and faded grandeur framing a complex, multi-layered biography of British writer Jean Rhys and her mental demons, including the mad woman in the attic of "Jane Eyre." (Christopher Rowson)

More curious things. Variety compares Jane Eyre and the The Wind in the Willows ballet, now in The Royal Opera House, London.

What is it about attics? From "Jane Eyre" to "Edward Scissorhands," storytellers have used dusty rooms at the tops of houses for the unveiling of secrets. And so it is with William Tuckett's dance version of "The Wind in the Willows." (David Benedict)

A recent poll among the British members of Parliament has produced these results:

The nation's politicians are a romantic bunch with MPs voting Casablanca as their favourite film of all time. (...) The Tories were twice as likely as their rivals to choose a romantic film, with many naming Gone With The Wind, La Dolce Vita and Wuthering Heights.

La Dolce Vita a romantic film? Hmmm...

Finally, a new story from the Yuletide 2006 Challenge. Isle of Gramarye presents it like this:

A beautiful turning-on-the-head of Charlotte Bronte's "Villette," focusing most delightfully on the vaudeville. Femslashly and devious.

"I would not be you for a kingdom"

Fandom: Charlotte Bronte - Villette
Written for:
Claire in the Yuletide 2006 Challenge

"Are you fond of a sea voyage?" I asked her.

She was small and slight and pale, a gentlewoman a few years older than myself, in plain mourning clothes. My father had pointed her out to me as suitable company on the journey from London to Dieppe. She did not look interesting -- she was not pretty, and her clothes were shabby -- but she was at least not one of the vulgar steerage passengers.

She looked at me carefully, and said, in a small but distinct voice, "I do not know whether I am fond of a sea voyage: I have never travelled by sea before." (Read more)

Categories: In_the_News, Jane_Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Theatre, Villette, Wide_Sargasso_Sea,