We Are Three Sisters Reading

A reminder of something going on today, July 21, in Haworth. A reading of the upcoming new play by Blake Morrison: We Are Three Sisters.

[A]ctors and writers are due to congregate in Haworth to promote the autumn premiere of Blake Morrison’s new play about the Brontë sisters.
Juliet Barker, biographer of the extraordinary Brontë family, will be there, along with actors from Barrie Rutter’s Northern Broadsides company, as well as Blake, a writer of poetry and plays who specialises in giving the language of his theatrical works a Yorkshire twist. [...]
We Are Three Sisters, his latest [play], was influenced by Chekhov’s 1901 comic drama of provincial unease The Three Sisters.
“Chekhov had read about the Brontës shortly before writing The Three Sisters,” he adds. “The likeliest source was Mrs Gaskell’s 1857 biography of Charlotte Brontë, commissioned after her death by her father Patrick.”
“So there are good reasons for transplanting the play to Haworth and identifying Irene, Masha and Olga with Anne, Emily and Charlotte – they even have a troubled and self-destructive brother in common.
“Above all, I hope that, by taking a cue from Chekhov, the play will banish the gloom surrounding the Brontës and reveal the Northern humour and resilience they showed, despite the ever-present threat of death and disease.
“In other words, I’d like to honour the truth of the Brontës while showing Charlotte, Emily, Anne, Branwell and Patrick as they’ve never been seen before.”
“If you read Charlotte’s letters, there is a real spirit and wit and humour about them that has never been brought out.
“The Brontës tend to be portrayed as poor, tragic victims – figures of gloom,” Blake adds, saying it was a matter of getting away from these stereotypes.
Arguably, people are drawn to the Brontës because they are tragic figures. Branwell, Emily and Anne all died of TB within the space of nine months, from September 1848 to May 1849. Charlotte died in March 1855. Patrick Brontë, old and blind, outlived his entire family. [...]
“It’s going to be a real Brontë fest in September,” Blake says. If he’s lucky, his play, directed by Barrie Rutter, will benefit from any extra interest created by these films. At the moment he’s still writing the script.
“This is the fifth draft now. Costumes and stage designs are still unfolding – casting has been done, I think; but undoubtedly there will be re-writes until the last minute.
“There are 70 pages of text, so I don’t think it will be a long play; but we won’t know until it’s up and running,” he adds.
Part of the purpose of the half-day at Haworth on July 21 is a cast read-through before an invited audience at the Baptist Chapel. Afterwards, a social event with drinks and nibbles is planned for the Brontë Parsonage Museum.  (Jim Greenhalf)

Categories: Theatre