'We must constantly re-examine in order to move forward'

Financial Times reviews Underdog: The Other Other Brontë, giving it 3 stars out of 5.

“What’s your favourite Brontë novel?” demands Gemma Whelan’s Charlotte Brontë at the outset of Underdog, bouncing through the National Theatre’s Dorfman auditorium, grabbing selfies with spectators and chatting away, secure in the knowledge that in any audience for a Brontë drama, most will have read Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë), many will have read Wuthering Heights (Emily) and a few will have read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne). 

And that’s the pecking order, right? But is it? And, if so, why? Sarah Gordon remixes the Brontë story to craft a funny, bubbling, bolshie play about sisterhood, feminism, creativity and fame. It’s mightily entertaining if, in the end, limited by its style.

From the get-go, Gordon’s drama is tongue-in-cheek about its own role as biography. “There may be some mistakes in this little revision,” admits Charlotte (after getting in a quick dig at Jane Austen for being on a banknote). In her account, the three Brontë sisters stride about the Howarth parsonage in full skirts and hefty boots, speaking in broad Yorkshire accents, expressing themselves in robustly anachronistic terms and jostling for publication in a world where the gatekeepers are all men. 

Charlotte’s contention is that in such an unequal society only a few women can push through, so it’s going to have to be her who becomes the much-discussed literary idol — whatever that means for the others. 

While the talk is of supporting one another, then, it’s Charlotte who dominates, claiming that it’s she who is the dedicated writer. In her depiction, Emily is frank and forthright and Anne, the youngest, is a meek little mouse. But Anne — the “other other Brontë” of the title — keeps kicking against this portrayal. “I am only small as your little sister,” she protests. “Nowhere else.”

It’s Anne who comes up with idea of male pseudonyms, Anne who first writes a novel about a governess, Anne who is the most radical and has a runaway success with her shocking The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (which depicts domestic violence and alcoholism). So when we see Charlotte suppress a reprint of the novel after her sister’s death, is that to protect Anne’s reputation? Or is it jealousy?

Anne is beautifully played by Rhiannon Clements as a gentle soul possessed of a strong will, passionate social conscience and fierce intelligence. Whelan’s Charlotte is a joy: funny, brusque, nakedly ambitious and not afraid to look mean. “I hope you won’t all judge me too harshly,” she implores of the audience. Adele James plays Emily as a woman of ferocious integrity, but her character is disappointingly sidelined.  

In Natalie Ibu’s enjoyable staging (a co-production with Northern Stage), a comic chorus plays all the men as caricatures — pompous publishers, smug critics and self-important authors. Period drama is witheringly satirised: an agonisingly slow journey is conducted at crawling pace using two large coach wheels and a pair of coconuts.

The play’s comic style doesn’t allow, however, for a more nuanced examination of the pertinent questions it poses about the glass ceiling, about competition for recognition and about cultural gatekeepers. Meanwhile we rather lose sight of real quality of the Brontë sisters’ writing and achievement. But as Anne (who pleasingly gets the final word) says: “We must constantly re-examine in order to move forward.” (Sarah Hemming)

The Spectator reviews it too but the tone of the review is set by the question: 'Why has the National engaged in this tedious act of defamation of the Brontës?'

More silenced women at the National Theatre. Underdog: The Other Other Brontë is the puzzling title of a new satire by Sarah Gordon. This too uses the sketch-show format and it opens with Gemma Whelan, as Charlotte Brontë, prancing around the auditorium and bawling questions at the crowd. ‘What’s your favourite Brontë quote?’ she yells. ‘The End,’ offered someone.

Fans of the Brontës should avoid this show because it lacks historical detail and it deliberately sets out to be superficial and childish. In the opening scene the three sisters snarl and curse at each other like letterless brutes stuck in a youth detention centre. Branwell, the drunkard, makes a brief appearance and after being drenched with a bucket of water he’s kicked off stage again. Later he dies, unlamented. In this play, as in most modern scripts, the male characters are presented as either rotters or rapists. No other conception of masculinity exists.

And the emotional texture never varies as the sisters caper about like shrieking TikTok divas waging rancorous battles for recognition and royalty fees. Quiet and self-effacing Ann, played by the beautiful Rhiannon Clements, is by far the most attractive member of the clan. Charlotte and Emily (Adele James) come across as a pair of foul-mouthed fishwives who make the Spice Girls seem sophisticated.

Someone should have questioned the wisdom of hiring actresses to impersonate great novelists and to stand on the stage of the National Theatre effing and blinding at the audience. This tedious act of defamation belongs in the bin. Or, failing that, in the Radio 4 early-evening comedy slot. (Lloyd Evans)

The Guardian has a letter from a reader about his memories of author Lynne Reid Banks.

I was sad to learn of the death of Lynne Reid Banks (Obituaries, 5 April). Although I loved The L-Shaped Room and the subsequent film – in spite of her misgivings – her novel Dark Quartet led me to an obsession with the Brontë sisters after a visit to Haworth. [...]

John Allison

Warwick

iNews recommends '10 of Yorkshire’s best walks, from wetlands birdwatching to coastal wonders' and one of them is

Top Withens

Distance: 10.7km

Top Withens is a ruined farmhouse up on the “wily, windy moors” that is said to have been the inspiration for Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Whether that’s fact or fiction, this walk through Brontë country, where the young women lived and worked, is so well known outside of the UK to warrant signage in Japanese – but the crowds tend to stop at the Brontë waterfall. Push on to the tops for views over the moors.

Best time to walk: Try and avoid wet days as it can get boggy. The cloud can move in quickly, so don’t leave without a map and compass. Bright days are popular, but a moody day feels absolutely in keeping with the essence of the Brontës. (Joanna Whitehead)

Both Keighley News and Coop News celebrate the news about the Brontë Birthplace and look forward to its future in the community.