Jane Eyre in Evanston

A new production of Polly Teale's Jane Eyre opens today, October 26, in Evanston, IL:

Northwestern
Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz
Center for the Performing Arts presents
Jane Eyre
October 26 – November 11, 2018
Josephine Louis Theater, 20 Arts Circle Drive

Adapted from Charlotte Brontë’s novel by Polly Teale
Directed by Kathryn Walsh
An educational production by arrangement with Nick Hern Books

As an orphaned child, Jane Eyre is taught by a succession of severe guardians to stifle her natural exuberance and as a result, she locks a part of herself away out of view from polite society. That is until she arrives at Thornfield Hall to begin work as a governess to the young child of Edward Rochester. Quickly, the wealthy man’s passionate nature reawakens Jane’s hidden self, but darker secrets are stirring in the attic above. Kathryn Walsh directs Polly Teale’s bold adaptation of the literary classic that uses theatrical movement to put the interior life of the novel on stage in a way you’ve never experienced before.

Northwestern gives some more information:

Director Kathryn Walsh, MFA directing program mentor and adjunct theater faculty at Northwester, said she looks forward to directing Teale’s bold adaptation of the literary classic.
“This unique adaptation is about the violence we do to ourselves under society’s ideas of who we are supposed to be, what our gender is supposed to be and how we are supposed to behave in the world,” Walsh said. “I’m excited about this production because it deals with a young woman and what it means to step into adulthood, which feels incredibly important and potent in this moment in time.” (Stephanie Kulke)