Worthing’s Conn Artists once again confirm themselves as a theatrical force be reckoned with, this time with a deeply-impressive stage adaptation of Jane Eyre, directed by Nick Young and produced by Ross Muir who is also our Rochester.
So assured, so confident, so natural were the performances that it was difficult to believe that this was the very first night of the tour that we were watching.
And equally, at the end, it was difficult to believe that we had seen just five actors, so completely and so distinctly did they inhabit the vast array of roles across the evening.
But perhaps most impressive of all was the fluency of the production, a piece of storytelling which beautifully captured the essence of the novel and flowed undeflected until it had delivered it whole – not just the darkness, the cruelty and the damage, but also the lightness and the humour.
This was a night of traditional Conn Artists work, with all their hallmarks, the use of music, a simple set, highly-effective multi-roling, the adaptation of a great classic – all woven together to excellent effect.
Our Jane tonight was Evie Depledge, and it was a remarkable performance she gave, offering us Jane’s vulnerability but more importantly, the sheer strength of her spirit – the little girl who endures such viciousness and cruelty and yet who answers back so forthrightly, ditto the young woman who learns to love but does so on her own terms, always according to her sense of what is right and just.
Opposite her was company founder and tonight’s producer Ross Muir as Rochester. Muir rightly gave us Rochester as a complex and difficult man, damaged and so wrong in so much of what he does, but also a man who starts to see the light and sense just what his life could be. It’s a very finely judged performance.
And around Depledge and Muir (who multi-roles to an extent), the others create the rest of Jane Eyre’s world.
Janna Fox shifts beautifully from Mrs Reed to Mrs Fairfax to Miss Ingram; Erin Maria Walther breaks your heart as Helen and then delights as Adele; Edward Smith is variously the ghastly Mr Brocklehurst and the high-minded St John Rivers.
Put it all together and it’s a terrific evening at the theatre which is about to go far and wide on a major tour – including that crucial home date in Worthing (Thursday-Friday, October 8-9) (Phil Hewitt)
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