The Mancunion reviews Wuthering Heights at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester before it ends its run tomorrow night.
The first half opened to the introduction of a young and somewhat barbaric Heathcliff, adopted by the elder Earnshaw into his young family, compromised of siblings Cathy and Hindley. Engaging with the playfulness of the characters at this age, Austin embodies the ferality of Heathcliff in the face of a new environment. Nevertheless, the performance feels slow and somewhat lacking across the board, with the characters never fully engaging with the audience. Sharma’s portrayal of Cathy was by far too much; she presented Cathy as a permanently aggressive individual who doesn’t ever seem to let up from the chip on her shoulder.Ilkley Gazette features the stage production of The Lost Voice of Anne Brontë.
This portrayal of Cathy in the first half made both the character and the production totally un-relatable to the audience. Paired with the somewhat dismal portrayal of Yorkshire as a purely backwards and barbaric county, with little room for much else, I was beginning to find this production especially distasteful. As a Yorkshire-woman, the rough-round-the-edges accents were forced at best, and at one point, I remember feeling almost offended that this is all Yorkshire, and the great Brontë text, could be perceived as. It felt very much like a Londoner’s portrayal of The Moors; unrealistic, one-dimensional and with a southern naivety which is certainly not present in the original text nor in the spirit of those of us that are familiar with the environment.
A distinct lack of structure also made it almost impossible to track the ageing of the characters. At times, Hindley especially was a web of confusion to the audience. In a particularly graphic scene involving a fox, it wasn’t clear whether he was supposed to be a child pretending to be an adult or an adult with a childish mentality. Moreover, the incessant and crude display of violence, almost constantly in the first half of the production, felt forced and unnecessary. The strongest and most evocative moments resonated when there was no dialogue at all.
Nevertheless, Cécile Trémolières’ set mirrored the environment of the desolate and wild moors in a far more understated and delicate way. Despite being paired with an excellent musical score by Alexander Faye Braithwaite and ethereal lighting by Zoe Spurr with which the atmosphere of the production was hinged, the first half of the production was barely salvageable.
In the second half, we see the performances of Rhiannon Clements as Isabella and Samantha Power as Nelly shine through alongside Alex Austin’s cockney, byronic Heathcliff, recently returned from London having made his fortune. Nelly becomes the empowered leading female in this production rather than Cathy, and there very much feels as though the multi-faceted portrayal that Brontë first envisioned in Wuthering Heights’ conception has been totally ignored. (Lily Martin)
[Playwright Cate Whitakker] said the play, part of the Bronte Society’s celebration of Anne Bronte’s 200th anniversary year, would give the writer back her lost voice.About Manchester has a couple of reviews of Blackeyed Theatre's take on Jane Eyre:
She said: “The young cast are extremely excited to be coming with this moving and powerful story around the tormented, tragic, treacherous lives of the Bronte siblings and the slow rise of Anne from a shy, sweet sickly girl to become a powerful force.
“She shocks the nation in her revelation of wife abuse in her second novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, then when the critics try to close her down she comes back with a blistering attack on them in the preface to the second edition.
“She dies before she can publish it [sic] and sister Charlotte, fearful of the effect on her and Anne’s reputation, refuses its publication denying Anne her rightful place in history.” [...]
She added: “I have been in love with the Brontes since my mother first mentioned them to me at nine, when I told her I wanted to be a playwright. Their work has inspired me as a writer but their lives have fascinated me as a Social Historian, particularly Anne and her detailed chronicling of the attitude towards women and particularly her strong sense of social justice.”
She said it was an honour to write the play and have it performed to mark Anne’s bicentenary - describing it as “at 71 a child’s dream come true.” (Annette McIntyre)
I am a little bit torn on whether a few more female actors would have helped instead of the same actors playing several different parts. It was very good that all of the actors could sing, play the piano and other instruments but there are few parts where it feels like the adults were messing about with a big dressing up box and making up the different characters. That said, there was a real spark between Jane and Mr Rochester but I am not sure if that spark should have been there as early as it was. [...]El Periódico (Spain) reviews the Spanish translation of Lyndall Gordon's Outsiders:
Overall, the acting was very good but the accents were a little odd at times, probably because the actors were all playing lots of different parts.,
The story did hold my attention from the start but it was such a shame that such a great production was only playing to a half full theatre. This is definitely a theatre that I will go back to, and although Jane Eyre has now finished, if this production is anything to go by, there will be some fantastic shows and plays to be seen.
Overall, it is a 3 out of 5 for me. (Amanda Padbury)
Usually the Jane Eyres we see are vast elaborate productions but this performance was beautifully economically staged.
With little or no costume changes and a static set apart from a few benches and cloths this was a wonderful example of compact theatre with no smoke and mirrors to distract us from the story.
To put on a production of this type can only work if the actors are also multi talented which they all were, not only as polished characterful actors but as singers, musicians and almost dancers in the way they moved about the stage and around each other as the benches and cloths were utilised to good effect as we moved scenes.
I was a little confused initially that Jane appeared so petulant but then realised this was in an effort to play out her childhood years as an orphan living with relatives who quickly disowned her, sending her to the local orphanage to be ‘cared’ for.
I have nothing but admiration for Kelsy Shirt who gave us Jane as the living narrator of her own life dealing with the hand she had been dealt so stoically but with an underlying passion.
The other actors were just amazing, dipping in and out of accents and parts speedily and to subtly comic effect.
I think Charlotte Brontë would have been pleased with how this troupe had brought Jane Eyre to the stage perfectly in all her understated glory.
This is the first time I have been to the Robert Bolt Theatre at the Waterside and it is such a lovely space I wished I lived closer to it to take more advantage of some of the interesting looking plays and shows that are advertised for this season. (Debbie Barlow)
Cinco mujeres adelantadas a su tiempo, cinco novelistas canónicas del siglo XIX y principios del XX que desafiaron las normas adscritas a su género, cinco chicas ‘raras’. Un quinteto de luchadoras cuyos nexos en común desentierra Lyndall Gordon (Ciudad del Cabo, 1941), una de las biógrafas literarias más reputadas del mundo anglosajón, en el libro ‘Proscritas. Cinco escritoras que cambiaron el mundo’, recién publicado por Alba. Se trata de Virginia Woolf, quien reivindicó el mito de la habitación propia; George Eliot, arquitecta de la monumental ‘Middlemarch’; Emily Brontë (la mediana de la saga); Mary Shelley, que alumbró a Frankenstein en una noche terrorífica; y Olive Schreiner, poco leída fuera de las fronteras surafricanas pero por quien la autora siente un apego especial.El Periódico has also selected Isabel Greenberg's Glass Town as one of the comics worth reading for International Women's Day.
Durante una conversación telefónica desde Oxford, donde vive e investiga en el Saint Hilda’sCollege, Gordon asegura que, si bien la escritura ‘de facto’ le llevó unos cuatro años, ‘Proscritas’ (Alba) es uno de esos libros que lleva toda una vida culminar. No solo porque la autora ha investigado a fondo la materia —ha publicado biografías individuales de Woolf y Charlotte Brontë, además de otros numerosos estudios—, sino también porque la semilla empezó a germinar durante la niñez. “Mi madre era una lectora pasional, y nos leía en voz alta, a mi hermano y a mí, los fragmentos de infancia de novelas como ‘El molino del Floss’ (George Eliot) o ‘Jane Eyre’ (Charlote Brontë), con sus heroínas inteligentes, impetuosas y huérfanas”, explica la autora, descendiente de judíos del Este de Europa. De hecho, confiesa, barajaba otro título para el ensayo, extraído de la novela bronteana: ‘Speak, I must’ (“es que debo hablar”), frase célebre que pronuncia Jane Eyre cuando, harta de vejaciones en el orfanato, se decide al fin a alzar la voz. (Olga Merino) (Translation)
LA CIUDAD DE CRISTAL. Isabel Greenberg. Impedimenta. Tras las celebradas ‘La enciclopedia de la Tierra temprana’ y ‘Las cien noches de Hero’, la autora británica se ha consolidado como contadora de historias con un brillante estilo y un mundo propio. En su nuevo cómic, de nuevo con una visión feminista, penetra en la Ciudad de cristal, el oscuro reino secreto e imaginario de unas hermanas Brontë en su niñez, cuando quedan aún muchos años para que, convertidas en escritoras célebres alumbren ‘Cumbres borrascosas’ o ‘Jane Eyre’. (Anna Abella) (Translation)Cuarto poder (Spain) recommends it for the same reason:
La ciudad de cristal. La fascinante historia real del mundo imaginario de las jóvenes hermanas Brontë, Isabel Greenberg, Trad Lorenzo Díaz, 2020, Madrid, Impedimenta.Bangor University students’ Union’s English language newspaper Seren recommends several literary destinations all over the world, including
Con la elegancia y el buen hacer al que nos tiene acostumbrados la editorial Impedimenta, llega a mis manos este volumen ilustrado sobre las hermanas Brontë. Pocas hermanas tan atractivas para la literatura e interesantes para los lectores, en lo que a su vida y a su obra se refiere, como ellas. La ciudad de cristal es una novela gráfica que arranca en los páramos de Yorkshire, tras la muerte de dos de los seis hermanos Brontë, y nos adentra en su mundo secreto a partir de los textos de juventud de los cuatro hermanos que quedan vivos. Todavía faltan unos cuantos años para que escriban Cumbres borrascosas o Jane Eyre, pero allí dentro ya están, en cierto modo, todos sus personajes y sobre todo su espíritu. Aunque casi todo lo que nos cuanta esta novela gráfica es realidad, su lectura debe disfrutarse como ficción, nos aconseja su autora en el prólogo y así, nosotros, nos debemos adentrar en sus páginas.
PARA QUIÉN: Para todo aquel que, conociendo un poco la trayectoria y la obra de las hermanas Brontë más conocidas ⎯ Charlotte, Emily y Anne⎯ no se haya acercado antes a la primera parte de su vida. (Carmen Domingo) (Translation)
Bronte Parsonage, HaworthWalks around York on York Mix and one of them is:
Dark stormy nights in these cold hours of winter are perhaps the most fitting to read a book by the Bronte sisters. Some of the most prominent women in the literary canon, Anne, Charlotte and Emily Bronte’s gothic novels redefined British women’s literature, carving out their own positions amongst the greatest writers of the 19th century, all within the walls of the Bronte Parsonage. What was once an isolated hamlet in the wilderness of Yorkshire, Haworth has now become a bustling tourist site with millions making their pilgrimage to see the house where it all began upon a steep hill.
The Parsonage is relatively cheap to enter, and also does student discounts, but regardless, a wander around the house where Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre, Anne hunched over The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and the moors Emily sauntered through as she wrote Wuthering Heights are enriching for any literary soul. This Victorian village is the perfect place to lose yourself in, whether for the atmospheric chills of winter, or for the incredible views of Yorkshire during the spring. (Holly Peckitt)
Haworth MoorShortlist has an ever-changing ranking of the best coming-of-age novels.
5 miles
3-4 hours
Challenging going
Start: Penistone Hill Country Park car park
Straddling the Pennines, this invigorating walk sweeps through the wild moorland and heather which was an inspiration for the Bronte sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne. The paths and tracks on this route provide views up to Top Withens ruins, connected locally to Emily’s famous novel Wuthering Heights and the surrounding moors. Visitors are asked to keep all dogs on a lead in the interest of farming and conservation.
2. Jane Eyre – Charlotte BrontëPink News offers commentary and reactions to Boris Johnson's admiration of Kate Bush. while a typical contributor to the Daily Mail tries to walk in his footsteps by choosing the women that shaped his life:
Year: 1847 Literary theorists have declared Charlotte Brontë’s revolutionary novel a primary example of the bildungsroman genre, containing, as it does, the titular character’s transformation from child to adult – and all the attendant emotional changes that entails. Dissecting the book for this evolution is a fascinating exercise – the backdrop may change but the leap into adulthood is still a jump into the unknown for many. (Marc Chacksfield)
Without exception, my childhood heroes were also men: Spitfire aces such as Johnnie Johnson and Laddie Lucas, the cricketer Colin Cowdrey and (inevitably for a child of my generation) Winston Churchill.On a more positive note, Edinburgh Evening News reports that,
The same is true of the great majority of writers I most admire - novelists such as Tolstoy, Fitzgerald, Wodehouse, Orwell, and Evelyn Waugh; poets such as Shakespeare, Donne, Keats and Betjeman. Notable exceptions are Jane Austen, George Eliot and the Bronte sisters, but could I put my hand on my heart and say that any of them had shaped my life? (Tom Utley)
in response to growing concerns from its clientele, one Scottish hairdressing group has decided to remove all such magazines from its salons and replace them with classic novels.Tulsa World reviews the latest screen adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma stating that,
Instead of Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan and Grazia, Chapter One hairdressing is filling its coffee tables with books such as A Tale of Two Cities, The Great Gatsby and Jane Eyre.
The change has been made after the team became increasingly aware of a growing societal backlash against gossip magazines and their portrayal of perfect lives and perfect bodies. (Frank O’Donnell)
When you get umpteen versions of these novels, between movies, TV and more, it’s rare that we get something the caliber of the 2011 masterpiece “Jane Eyre,” with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, and more common that we get, you know, just another version. (Michael Smith)According to Screen Rant, Jane Eyre 1983 is the top BBC period drama of all time:
1/15 JANE EYRE (1983)An Instagram tip courtesy of Mashable: Don't feel guilty for abandoning the books you've Instagrammed'
Before he was Bond, Timothy Dalton did what many British actors did on the cusp of stardom - he donned a sweeping frock coat and a cravat and transformed himself into a Byronic hero for the BBC. As Mr. Rochester, he joined the ranks of Colin Firth's Mr. Darcy as an enigmatic and smoldering leading man in Jane Eyre.
When the titular Jane Eyre, a shy young woman is hired on as the governess at Mr. Rochester's home, she's not prepared for the fact that her new place of employment may be haunted, and that her brooding employer is handsome. The palpable chemistry between the two leads in this BBC adaptation makes it transcend its antiquated material. (Kayleena Pierce-Bohen)
I happen to love Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, but I know for a fact that others really struggle with both of them. Some of my dearest friends love Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life — they implored me to read it, told me I'd love it — but do you know what? I just couldn't get through it.Talk about misplaced guilt.
Not everyone is going to love Sally Rooney's Normal People or Kiley Reid's Such A Fun Age (I happened to love both). If every single human on the planet loved the exact same books, this world would likely be a very dull place.
In the grand scheme of things, it's worth remembering that Instagram is not real life. What we post doesn't always reflect reality. Do I feel bad when I post a pic of a delicious looking meal that ended up tasting kinda gross? No. Do I guilt-trip myself for not finishing the cocktail that looked cool on my grid, but ended up being unbearably strong? Absolutely not. (Rachel Thompson)
For World Book Day yesterday, BBC Teach put together a list of '7 songs inspired by books', such as
1. Wuthering Heights by Kate BushAnd historian Lucy Worsley, dressed up as Jane Eyre.
Probably the most famous of literary-music references, Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush was inspired by Emily Bronte’s 1847 novel.
After catching the last 10 minutes of a TV show, Kate Bush decided to read the book and discovered she shared the same birthday as the author.
Still unnerved by this uncanny coincidence, some ten years later, she was inspired to turn it into a song and in the early hours of 5 March 1977, when she was just 18, she wrote her own Wuthering Heights (although she’d already written over a hundred songs by this point).
The track was released in January 1978 as the first single from her debut album The Kick Inside, and is sung from the perspective of the Wuthering Heights character Catherine Earnshaw, pleading at Heathcliff's window to be allowed in.
It quotes Catherine's dialogue, including the chorus lyric "Let me in! I'm so cold!" and "Bad dreams in the night".
Bush recorded her vocals in one take.
With this track, Bush became the first female artist to have an entirely self-penned number one hit in the UK, spending three weeks at number one.
Revista Yume (Spain) recommends Wuthering Heights. Milenio (Mexico) includes Jane Eyre among other remarkable fictional women.For #WorldBookDay I have come as Jane Eyre pic.twitter.com/MUSzqRUrcm— Lucy Worsley (@Lucy_Worsley) March 5, 2020
