A couple of plays and a weekend break

Nippertown has a short interview with Jasmine Roth, director of the play You On the Moors Now” at the Yulman Theatre at Union College.

Q: What is the action of “You on the Moors Now” and how does it resonate with you?

A: In “You On the Moors Now” four famous heroines from four famous novels (Lizzie Bennet, Jane Eyre, Jo March and Cathy Earnshaw) all run away from their suitors and find each other instead. They go off on an adventure to find themselves and see the world, but their suitors are angry and wage war against them instead. Throughout so much of human history a woman's societal obligation has been to get married and have children. When the novels this play is based on were written the stakes of turning down a marriage proposal were so high, and yet each of these heroines fought for equality in their own way inside their story. This play- which bends time and space - allows them to do even more than they could in the time frames of their own story- liberating them beyond what could have been. These have been some of my favorite novels throughout my life, so it's thrilling to be able to explore these characters in a new light, and pay homage to the original texts.

Q: What has surprised you about this process that you think the audience might really enjoy?

A: The play is really physical — we're scaling cliff sides and running over hills. We wanted to really bring the adventurous landscape of the moors to life and the set really does that. Our scenic designer Andrew Mannion took a lot of inspiration from photos of the moors, but also kids clubhouses, war museums, old books and playgrounds. (Patrick White)

Still on stage, GB News reviews Underdog: The Other Other Brontë.

At one point in Gordon’s drama, Charlotte Brontë reflects on the perceived witchy nature of her and her sisters’ work; female collaboration has, at various points in history, been seen as a dangerous thing with wicked possibilities.

Considering the Brontës’ firm place in the literary canon, and Sarah Gordon’s work alongside Natalie Ibu with this play, that assumption is proven true.

Gordon’s work certainly akes time to acclimatise to - it is a bolshy, sweary love letter to the power of female authorship which worked well as a complete package, despite certain moments feeling slightly overworked and clunky. [...]

Underdog follows the sisters’ struggle to publish their works, the - at times toxic - rivalry between them, and the heartbreaking deaths of Emily and Anne which cut short their flourishing literary careers.

The boldness and bravery of the Brontës’ endeavour - often tackling taboo subjects of domestic violence, female independence, and financial inequality in an age of rapid industrial expansion - is entirely reflected in Grace Smart’s beautiful costuming.

Charlotte (Gemma Whelan) wears a bright cherry-red gown, with Emily (Adele James) in blue and Anne (Rhiannon Clements) in purple.

Gordon’s biting script for Charlotte is excellently handled by the inimitable Gemma Whelan. It is cheeky and witty and moves at a great pace.

Gordon’s script truly sings, though, when she weaves the Brontës’ own words alongside her own. Anne’s death scene is expertly intertwined with Caroline’s near-death in Charlotte’s third novel Shirley, creating a stunning mix of the real and the fictional; when reflecting on Charlotte’s own futility, Whelan beautifully delivered Emily’s poem, High Waving Heather.

More of these kinds of moments would have certainly tipped the play over into legendary status.

A note once more on Grace Smart’s set design. In contrast to the natural landscape of the moor is a black, worn, scuffed backdrop which serves as a reminder of the contextual industrial setting the Brontës were writing in. Where the staging really came into its own was in the scene where Charlotte and Anne were exchanging letters. [...]

There’s a lot of (at times unnecessary) swearing in Underdog. There’s also a lot of frivolity (a farcical carriage ride to London, say, or Anne’s persistent questioning of Charlotte) which could perhaps be trimmed. But alongside this, there are some excellent observations on a family who created such incredible cultural heritage from a small vicarage in Haworth. (Katie Bowen)

The Telegraph recommends '10 underrated corners of the UK for a weekend break' and one of them is 

The Calder Valley

[...] It is worth visiting just for a wander among the moorlands, but then there’s the brooding, eternally misty Todmorden, which is home to an indoor market serving impressively good coffee. Hike towards Pendle for moody cloudscapes one minute, glowing, sunlit hillsides the next. Literary types can turn the other way for a stomp across Brontë country, or head towards Sylvia Plath’s burial place in Heptonstall. (Sophie Dickinson)