My name is Charlotte for a reason

Broadway World features the Philadelphia Artists’ Collective's take on Jane Eyre.

Brought to you by the team behind Tiny Dynamite's acclaimed The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged, this thrilling version of the beloved novel features a large ensemble and utilizes a chorus of "Janes" to theatricalize the heroine's rich inner life. Jane Eyre runs for 2 hours and 30 minutes, and is recommended for ages 10 and up. [...]

"Jane Eyre has been a project four years in the making," said PAC Co-Founder/ Producing Artistic Director Damon Bonetti. "We were originally asked by a university to produce a Jane Eyre. We read a number of adaptations but were dissatisfied with them all. The Creative Team just had a hit with The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged. Charlotte being with that cohort and also being tapped to play Jane, it made sense to create our own. The pandemic made us rethink how we wanted to present this play in terms of location and making it an all professional cast. So we decided to make it part of our first full season back."

He added, "PAC produces theatre that is epic, but with a visceral intensity and a focus on the humanity in these stories. This is a new play, but the story is almost 200 years old, and, in my recollection of working in the area since the mid 90's, there has never been a production of Jane Eyre. PAC produces rare classics and this is a story rarely told on stage."

To bring an epic story like this to stage PAC turned to longtime fan and friend Kathryn MacMillan, who is also the New Artistic Director of Inis Nua Theatre and the Producing Artistic Director of Tiny Dynamite. MacMillan had directed a PAC reading of A Month in the Country some years ago. Additionally, MacMillan's only professional acting credit was in the ensemble of The Fair Maid of the West, directed by Charlotte Northeast. For Jane Eyre, she would reunite with PAC and swap roles with Northeast - with Northeast acting and MacMillan directing.

"Of course Jane Eyre begins with Charlotte Northeast," said MacMillan. "The writing team wrote with her voice (and her considerable skills!) in our minds. And this novel means so much to her--she brings so much passion and knowledge to her work. [...]"

"My name is Charlotte for a reason," said Northeast. "My mother is a Brontë fan and I am named after the writer. When I was little, I was plunked in front of all the great adaptations of the novel and my fifth grade book report was on Jane Eyre. So you could say, I've been building up to this for a while. Jane resonates with me because she is described as 'plain and little' and yet she carves out such a life for herself that, at the time of publication, t was thought scandalous. Not because she does outrageous things but simply because she asks to be treated as she is - a woman of intelligence and curiosity in a world that didn't always embrace that. I've always been little. I don't generally wear makeup. It's not part of who I am. But I take up space. I probably cross more lines than I should and sometimes people don't expect that. I'm hoping to meld my affinity with Jane with the life that Brontë gives her in the novel and come up with something vital and new." (Stephi Wild)

We don't see the connection, but The Guardian says this in a review of the novel The Imposters by Tom Rachman.

Female novelists seem to be getting a bit of a bashing these days. Some literature courses offer trigger warnings for anyone frightened by the “toxicity” of Jane Eyre or Northanger Abbey. Tom Rachman’s The Imposters doesn’t let them off too lightly either. His first novel, The Imperfectionists, focused on journalists. Here he offers a convoluted study of a different sort of writer, the ageing novelist Dora, in a treatment that is not unfeeling, though needlessly contorted. (Lucy Ellmann)

BookTrib reviews Wild Beautiful and Free by Sophfronia Scott.

Lots of lessons can be gleaned from this retelling of Jane Eyre; we see Jeannette speak up for herself, forgive others and live her truth as she seeks love. I recommend Wild Beautiful and Free, an empowering and moving novel. (Jennifer Blankfein)

Daily Herald features this year's Spring Festival of Dance.

[Lillia Kaye of Huntley High School] returns to the stage in Jane, a piece she choreographed inspired by the book "Jane Eyre." (Judith Svalander)

My Movies (Italy) reviews Emily after seeing it at the Salone OFF di Torino.

Frances O'Connor riesce in qualche maniera a donare alla narrazione un grado di focalizzazione tale da abbattere ogni possibile pietismo, giudizio o opinioni di sorta sul conto della protagonista: Emily ci arriva dritta al cuore nella sua più pura essenza, proprio come lo stream of consciousness ante litteram che lei stessa metterà a punto in Cime Tempestose.

Tutto questo non sarebbe però stato possibile senza Emma Mackey, la giovane star di Sex Education ormai lanciata verso i più rosei orizzonti del cinema con la c maiuscola. La performance di Mackey è semplicemente inestimabile: scandisce il ritmo del film come un metronomo settato sulla stabilità emotiva della protagonista, si raggomitola in sé stessa quando il momento è cupo, per poi bucare lo schermo quando è il momento di brillare.

Cos'altro dire su Emily, se non che è un film complesso e sfaccettato nella misura in cui riflette l'essenza della sua protagonista? Intimo, delicato, vero, sensuale, letterario, poetico e chissà quante altre cose ancora. Forse, più che un film per gli amanti della letteratura o di Emily Brontë, questo è un film per chi ama le persone. (Translation)